[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for March 11 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Lent 3
Mark 2:13-22 - "Clean House" 
Mark 2:13-22 - "No Cleansing, No Refreshment" by Leonard Sweet
 
John 2, the sermon title "Clean House"
 
The portrait of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Gospel appointed for this day has proven to be something of a conundrum for interpreters through the years. What we see is the Lord Jesus in a violent rage driving animals and people out of the Temple. Years ago Bruce Barton, in a very popular book, The Man Nobody Knows, used the story to demonstrate how virile the Lord Jesus was. He surmised that the Lord Jesus was capable of Herculean strength and prowess because of his outdoorsy lifestyle and vigorous walking missionary tours. However, others have been concerned that this public demonstration which had all the earmarks of a near riot was most unbecoming of the normal life style of Jesus. Also, if this were a pique of temper, could not someone accuse Jesus of being guilty of a sin which all of us dislike very much?

Then, of course, there is the additional problem of finding this story in the beginning of the Fourth Gospel, whereas the other evangelists place it in Holy Week at the beginning of his passion. Could it be true that Jesus cleansed the Temple twice? Is John right and the others wrong? Or is it the other way around? Or could there be another reason why John places the story where he does? There is good reason to think that it is the latter. The story of Jesus cleansing the Temple helps us to understand several very important aspects of the church and its worship.

1.  The Context and the Importance of the Temple
2.  The Shock of Challenging an Old System
3.  The Body of the Church and the Sacramental Body
4.  Our Worship in the Spirit of the Lord
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup 
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The full text of the following sermon is available at www.Sermons.com. 

John 2 the sermon titled "No Cleansing, No Refreshment" by Leonard Sweet 
 
Do you realize how much you pay to get “roughed up?” 
 
You heard me right. 
 
You even pay big bucks to get roughed up on a daily basis.
 
To be sure, you don’t think about this activity as getting “roughed up.” You probably think of it as your morning shower or your evening bath. 
 
But consider what you do as you go about your daily cleansing rituals. Whether you use a washcloth, a loofah, or one of those “buff-puff” thingies, as you rub and scrub in the bathtub or shower you are roughing up and sloughing off dead skin cells. Pumice stones grate off rough calluses. Facial scrubs are peppered with “micro beads,” gritty bits designed to gently “rough up” your tired skin, exfoliating and revealing a fresh new layer. To “come clean” some things have to go — dirt, sweat, and a layer of old skin cells. That’s why cleansing involves some “rough stuff.”
 
In today’s gospel text Jesus’ actions, his “cleansing” of the Temple courtyard, is accomplished with a vigorous roughing up. But what exactly is Jesus so set on scrubbing off? 
 
Jesus’ anger is focused against the economic activities going on outside the Temple…
 
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A Good Cleaning
 
When Jesus entered the temple that day he found a faith that was stale, downright dirty. People were taking advantage of others and ritual had become more important than the condition of the heart. What Jesus did, I believe, was challenge a smug, hypocritical religious system that desperately needed to change. Therefore, a little demolition was necessary, not to mention an all out assault to clean house.

The faith community at that time was so wrapped up in rules and ritual the fresh revelation of God could not get through. It was impossible for them to "see" because they were blinded by obstacles that hindered their ability.

In this story we get an image of Jesus as a one-man wrecking crew, swinging a sledgehammer. There is no way to make improvements in an old house without making a mess. There is plaster dust, dirt, nails and smelly carpet. It is hard work. It is impossible to paint without getting paint on yourself. I am sure that Jesus absorbed a few skinned knuckles that day, not to mention getting his garment dirty.

The faith community needed a good housecleaning and Jesus took it upon himself to do just that with zeal and determination.

Keith Wagner, Spring Housecleaning our Faith
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A Passover Crowd’s Needs
 
It’s estimated that the population of Jerusalem would swell from 50,000 to 180,000 at Passover. Pilgrims would come from as far away as Persia, Syria, Egypt, Greece and Rome. For comparison, think about College Station on the Saturday afternoon of an A&M football game, then double that number and hold on to the crowd for a week, instead of a day. That’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed; a lot of weary travelers to put up for the night. Plus, they’re coming to the temple to make a sacrifice. They’re going to need an unblemished animal for that. They’re also going to pay their temple tax. Somebody’s going to have to help them exchange their currency. Get the picture? The commercial implications of Passover were enormous, perhaps comparable to the Christmas season in the United States today. 
 
So, I think it’s safe to say the merchants were making a killing off the week of Passover, but were they really doing anything wrong? You could say that, by exchanging money and selling birds and animals for sacrifice, they were providing a service. Now, it’s true, in the synoptic gospels; i.e., Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus accuses the merchants of cheating the people. He says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.” (Mt. 21:13) 
 
Perhaps there was some price gouging going on, but this is not the focus of Jesus’ anger, according to John. As far as John is concerned, Jesus is upset because all this buying and selling has intruded upon the sacred space for worship. In John’s gospel, Jesus says, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace (a house of commerce).” (John 2:16)
 
Philip W. McLarty, Spring Cleaning
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