| Actually, Nancy's misspelling of "commitment" may just be a sign from
God for all of us to witness. God often, maybe almost all the time,
presents things before us that call us, nay, demand us to interpret
them through the grace of God. We praise you, Loving God, that you
have given us hints of what it is that you want - for us, of us.
It is through your love that we don't need "fait" to be presented
before us to know that through you faith is completed, and through your
love which corrects our misinterpretation of "committment" that we come
to commitment in a Holy covenant with you.
It is through your love that we are able to be people who accept others
that make mistakes, to love others for whom they are, yes as ones who
are children of you, our true and only God. And may our mistakes be
forgiven by others, our friends, our neighbors, our enemies, and by
you, Oh Holy One.
We, our families, our friends, our nation are engaged in war when you
call us to love one another, to love others as we love ourselves. We
are quick to study the "rules" of the "Just War Theory" and slow to
seek the time when the lion lays down with the lamb.
And yet we are visiting Holy Scripture today in which Jesus overturns
the money changers tables. How are we to interpret his words, his
actions in todays crisis? Until we turn toward you, until we have a
vision of peace, until we truly believe that we are all one under the
sun (and one under the rain), until then God's Temple will not be
restored, until then God will not be in peace.
Jesus is the Way, Jesus is the strength, Jesus is the courage. Let us
break the bread of peace and share that peace with all creation.
So Nancy, thank you for the spelling - for it was correct, as correct
as we are in this world, as correct as we need to be to be accepted.
Shalom,
Ron
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"Minding the Temple"
Ron Francey - March 3, 1991
Exodus:20:1-17;Psalm 19:7-14;John 2:13-22
When I was a child, I used to love to go into the woods behind my
house and roam around for hours and hours. There were several
hundred acres back there in those woods; it was a protected
sanctuary - that is, protected for the next hundred years. I
would go off always trying to find at least a little different
way, a little different destination. I remember times when I
would go out and gather some princess pine, gather it up in my
arms and bring it home for use in Christmas decorations.
I also remember one of the earliest times I had gone into that
forest during a fresh heavy snow feeling quite protected in
knowing I could always get back, simply by following my old
footsteps. So I went deep into the woods that day and explored
to my hearts content the trees, the birds, the rabbits and
squirrels.
I hadn't noticed that I had actually gone in some circles and had
crossed my path a few times. When I decided to make the venture
home, to turn in my tracks and follow my footsteps, things were
ok for awhile - until I came to what appeared to be an infinite
number of crossings which I couldn't figure out. I was lost!
I remember how my pace quickened, along with my heart. I began
running slowly at first and then flat out on maximum throttle.
It was no use - I was lost. I don't remember whether I cried or
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not but I still do remember that fear. After awhile I came to a
stop and kind of huddled up to a big old pine tree. Suddenly the
voices of a few people were heard in the distance. Was I ever so
glad. I went off to them as fast as I could probably startling
them as I approached. They led me out of the woods.
This story is similar to the linkage between our Old Testament
reading and the Gospel of John. The Old Testament reading,
commonly known as the Ten Commandments or the Decalogue is a
suggested path that we travel. There are good and meaningful
things on that path, things that deal with our right relationship
with God and our right relationship with family, friends and the
greater society.
We enter that woods of the Ten Commandments with certain pre-
understood notions of what it means to be a Christian, of what it
simply means to be. We go into that woods with certain beliefs,
certain standards and often, as in my case into the woods, get
lost. What we thought was the way became - well, kind of
twisted, not as sure or straight as we thought it to be.
For many of us, we knew what is was to have close knit families.
We knew about the one thing we would always have regardless of
everything else we might lose. We knew that we could always come
home, no matter what we had done, no matter what the conditions.
That is a path that many of us have been on - and then somehow,
something changed. There suddenly was disruption in our lives,
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in our families - our value system had been shattered. No longer
did brother love brother, no longer did a child look up to the
parent or no longer did the parent welcome its own flesh, welcome
home its own child. For many people, perhaps even some that are
here today, the path has led us to a maze out of which there
seems to be no escape, no exit.
Many of us who have lived through the stock market crash of the
1930's have learned prudence, learned to live frugally, learned
the importance of preparing for the future, learned to save that
important nest egg for the future so that we could be self
sustaining, so we would not become dependent on others, on our
children, so that we would not feel humiliated at the need to
accept handouts. Many of us for years have put away money into
the RI Credit Unions. For many people, perhaps even some that
are here today, the path has led us to a maze out of which there
seems to be no escape, no exit.
Many of us have known and valued and loved the church for many
years. We, perhaps, can remember sitting through Sunday School -
being what seemed to be many things all at the same time - being
kind of amazed at just how smart our teacher was, being a little
afraid that we would get called on and that we wouldn't have the
right answer, being with a new friend whom we kind of took a
shine to. As we were growing up, some of us might remember going
to the pastor whom we knew and trusted and whom would try to help
us with our periodic difficulties. Maybe in time we pulled away
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from that church and maybe even church in general - but we always
felt a church or our church was a safe place to be - a place
where we could always come.
For others of us, perhaps we have witnessed other things inside
the church - seemingly repetitive crashes among different groups,
each with apparently its own agenda, each with its own knowledge
of what God wants and intends for us, for the church. For some
of us there seems to be growing rivalry, growing hostility - and
suddenly we find we are in the maze of church politics. We have
come down a path and have lost our way. For many people, perhaps
even some that are here today, the path has led us to a maze out
of which there seems to be no escape, no exit.
For many of us, we have sought to walk the path of peace, peace
for all people, peace for people everywhere. Where we have seen
injustice, we have worked to establish justice. Where we have
seen merciless acts of aggression, we have sought the
establishment of mercy. Where we have seen despotic rulers, we
have fought for the right of freedom. When we have not seen
sufficient strength within the masses to accomplish their own
peaceful regime, we have provided the means to accomplish that
end. When the people have not asked for support, we have
provided it. When the people don't want support - yes, even then
we have provided it - suddenly we find ourselves lost deep in the
trenches - somewhere - God only knows where that somewhere is.
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In the search for peace, some of us shriek out that we should
kill Saddam Hussein - that that is the only solution that would
work. How far it is that we have strayed from that earlier path
of peace. And now, for many people, perhaps even some that are
here today, the path has led us to a maze out of which there
seems to be no escape, no exit.
So we kind of fumble along in this path of life, crossing over
our tracks, getting lost beyond belief. How could this happen,
we ask ourselves? What are we to do? Which way should we turn?
Jesus knows about paths through the woods; he knows about the
twists and turns through the wilderness of life that corrupts our
minds and bodies; yes, those that corrupt our very souls. He
knows about plans made and not kept. He knows about temptations
that present themselves before us with all their apparent
radiance and glory. Today we are in the midst of the Lenten
Season, a period of forty days that for many stands symbolically
for Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, for that period in
which, yes, even Jesus the Christ faced temptation.
And later, when Jesus was in the Temple that day, Jesus knew of
the frailty of humankind. On that day in the Temple, Jesus swept
away before us the errancy of our ways. How surprised those
moneychangers must have been the day those tables were
overturned! After all, what were they doing that was so bad?
Weren't they simply providing a service for the people, so they
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could pay their taxes? Weren't they preparing offerings to be
made to God?
And although we may see more clearly, the reasons for Jesus to
act in such a way before the people in the Temple, why is it that
we are less able to see and understand how Jesus would act before
us today? So often we have come to feel led into this maze of
life. We often fail to assume responsibility for our actions,
for our situations. As the Temple had become a community place,
a gathering in the courtyard, an object, a noun - so too has our
Faith become a noun. Jesus calls our Faith to transition from a
noun to a verb, from an object to action.
The good news is that Jesus has cleared the table, has cleared
the table for us, forever! He has given us new commandments - to
love God as the one true God; to love one another as we would
love ourselves. Today, we have come to celebrate, and what
better way is there to celebrate, than to share in a new table
presented before us, a common table, a table of life - a table
that knows no distinctions between people of different color, of
different ages, of different sexes, of different nations, of
different sexual orientations. We are called to celebrate our
diversity as one people of God.
And as I heard voices slightly off in the distance who were to
become my instant friends, when I was unable to find my way out
of the woods and came to rely on someone other than myself - so
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too are we to receive new directions and help from a new friend -
yes, even from Jesus the Christ.
And today as church bells ring all over the world, let us pray
for them to usher in a new era of peace, a peace undaunted by
peoples' and nations' individual needs and wants, a peace when we
can all say "brother" or "sister", a peace that celebrates
creation, a peace that makes straight the crooked paths we have
been on.
When Jesus so dramatically cleared the Temple, he dramatically
demonstrated against the way things were, against the use and
abuse within the Temple, against our lost vision of God. Jesus
is that friend who can lead us out of the maze in which we find
ourselves. Jesus has given us the new code to break the maze of
life in which we find ourselves. For it is through our knowing
of God's infinite love and mercy for us that we can confidently
say: "with the help of God we can."
Amen
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