Third Sunday in Lent
The Rev Rod Sprange

John 2:13-22

Your Stewardship Development Group asked that I include a reflection on the stewardship of our time and talents. This is the spring stewardship focus.  The readings today don’t readily lend themselves to this theme, so I will begin by offering a few thoughts on the Gospel reading, then turn to the stewardship of our time and the gifts that have been entrusted to us by God.

We heard John’s version of Jesus’s visit to the temple in Jerusalem, and his angry and violent confrontation with the animal sellers and money changers. The other three Gospels place this event following Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the last week of his life. John, in contrast, places this at the very beginning of Jesus’s public ministry. As an early sign of Jesus’s Messiahship and authority. An outline of John’s story of Jesus so far would be: he visits John the Baptist and is baptized and recognized by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God, that is, the passover lamb. Jesus then travels to Canna with Mary his mother and attends a wedding there. When the wedding wine runs out, Mary urges Jesus to do something and he turns water into wine. His first Sign. John’s Gospel contains several signs that are meant to reveal that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. After the wedding on Canna John tells us about Jesus’s visit to Jerusalem at passover. He enters the temple and is furious at what he sees going on.

The temple was the very heart of judaism, it was the most holy place in the land. Jesus was angry because the Priests and others in authority had turned it into a money making shopping mall. Try to imagine the place, a huge temple taking up several city blocks, teeming with people from all over Israel and the surrounding countries. It’s filled with the noise and smells of cattle, sheep, birds and people. The smell of smoke from the sacrifices lingers in the air. The animal sellers and the money changers are shouting out their sales pitches. Not quite like your typical Anglican church service. Jesus was likely not angry only at these activities but at the corrupt system that had been created. People have come to offer, through the priests, sacrifices to God. To buy anything in the temple you needed special temple money. The only place to get temple money was from the temple money changers. The conversion rate was often exorbitant, and the animals and birds were much more expensive in the temple than in the market outside.

Why then did people not just buy the sacrificial animals outside? Good question. The problem was the birds and animals offered for sacrifice had to be without blemish. Only a temple priest could certify a bird or animal as being without blemish and therefore a worthy offering to God. It wasn’t worth the risk of buying the cheeper bird outside only to have it rejected by the priest.

A lot of money was being made affecting the poor and vulnerable - by the ones who were called to care for them. No wonder Jesus was angry. His action that day actually closed down the temple; no sacrificial animals no sacrifices.

It’s no wonder that the religious authorities demanded some kind of sign from Jesus, some credentials giving him the authority to enter the temple and disrupt everything. Who did he think he was! That’s when Jesus answered with the famous and enigmatic statement “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”, a veiled reference to his death and resurrection. It would be the ultimate and definitive sign of Jesus’s Messiahship and divinity - his death and resurrection. This of course was completely lost on all those there that day. Only after his resurrection did the disciples remember and begin to understand.

The Jewish religious leaders had lost sight of their mission and responsibilities. They had become caught up in the preservation of religious ritual and self benefit. Jesus was calling them to account and destabilizing their whole system of power and prestige. He was dangerous.

During this Lenten season and our extended Covid enforced exile we have the opportunity to reflect on what is important to God about our life together as the church. We have been handed down the great gift of the Christian Faith, and our particular tradition as an Anglican parish. What is it that God expects of us? What has God entrusted to this particular community of Christian sisters and brothers? Where might we be caught up in the preservation of ritual over our compassionate care for and nurture of one another? What is clear is that we are called to share our gifts with one another and to encourage one another as we live out our faith in a broken, troubled and anxious world.

One way we build up this part of the body of Christ is by recognizing and affirming each others gifts. Some gifts are more visible than others. However, the gifts of helpers are just as important as the more visible gifts of leadership. Those who quietly support our congregational life in regular functions like coffee making and altar guild. There are the ones who regularly add their names to sign up sheets when the parish is holding an event, or asking for volunteers.

During this time of exile and separation, some have been giving their time to quietly checking in with other members of the community by making a simple regular phone call. Others have been sending cards - and sharing their creative talents.

We are privileged to be part of an extended family, a faith family. Many are riding out the pandemic without a sense of belonging, feeling very much alone. We need to show our gratitude for the gift of one another, especially in these prolonged, and for some lonely, or anxious days. I am so grateful for all of you who come together each Sunday. You don’t know how much your presence and witness means to others, or the strength and encouragement just seeing you gives. So thank you and thank you for your ministries, big and small - each precious in God’s eyes.

Perhaps, as Donna said last week, Jesus wasn’t always nice, the Temple visit being an example, but you know, he was always compassionate. Let us learn from him and demonstrate compassion for one another as we endure this time of exile.

During March, the Stewardship Development Group is encouraging us to think seriously about our personal gifts and how God is calling us to make use of them. If you think about our St. Peter’s family, you can’t help but be impressed by the range and abundance of gifts in our midst. A few years back we held a series of workshops on discerning our spiritual gifts. In that series we were given a number of exercises to help us discover or confirm some of our personal gifts. We also engaged with one another in pairs and helped each other to recognize gifts others saw in us and to affirm one another. We also spent time articulating things we were passionate about. The goal of the series was to identify where our gifts and our passions came together, and to consider how we might use our gifts in ministry related to those passions.

At St. Peter’s we have many wonderful ministries, some of which we will be hearing about during March. You might find yourself called to join one. But we also recognize that you may have a potential new ministry that you feel passionate about, and we want to be able to help you discern how that might take shape.

God has equipped each of us with various gifts. As we continue our Lenten journey towards Jerusalem, the Cross and the blessed Resurrection, may we take time to pray for discernment of these gifts and inspiration in how God is calling us to use them. Amen