Lent 3

Let's name the dilemma of the Gospel: what to do with Jesus' anger. And I say this because, like you, I have heard many a sermon and reflection on this passage with expositions that range from apology to justification. You know the thing; well, it was a different anger to our sort of basic anger, and really, it just proves Jesus was human.

Or, because of this incident, all kinds of causes are justified in righteous anger - from killing people, to saving whales, to street marching. If it's right, let's get angry about it.....

In different ways, I can see merit in both of those interpretations - Jesus was fully human, and I do believe we are called not to be complacent about many things that happen in life. ......injustice, Zimbawawe, inequity, abuse of children, negligence in oil spills...There are things we need to get passionate about, to get worked up about, so that indeed we can bring change.

The alternate action, or image, is that we just roll over and take it. And I would claim that the victim mentality is as alive and well in this world, and the church, as the righteous anger mentality. We do Jesus Christ enormous disservice when we take on the meek and mild image, of "so called" always offering our cheek. At the heart of that approach would seem a belief that Jesus was a martyr, and that his crucifixion was a salve to the world, rather than Christ's own action with the cross proving the salvation of the whole world.

How we need to hold to Paul's words that we hear this morning:
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

If Jesus' crucifixion was an act of martyrdom, then Christianity is a dead cause. No pun intended. And somehow, in his anger-action in the temple that day, we get a glimpse of the true, whole message.
Let me come at it from another angle.
This weekend PEP began in the parish. Parent Education Program, offered and run by MU, is a great 5-session program about parenting skills and awareness's of being a parent in this day and age. I have long been an advocate of it, and I will tell you why I was initially attracted to its worth. I was at a Childrens' Ministry Conference 8 or 9 years ago, and PEP was being introduced there in its entry into the Australian church (it is a UK MU initiative). We workshopped the first session, and all of a sudden I found myself discovering the reality that the way I was a parent, was the way I had been parented myself. In fact, the maxim "you end up acting like your mother" is true. We do! This is termed "family of origin", and through exploration of our own story of being a child and our relationship with our family, the influences on our own way of living our life, and indeed our parenting-style, emerge.

It was a wonderful epiphany for me, and others with me. And while it seems simple psychology in one way, the actuality of telling your childhood in story, is very confronting. We cannot deny our "family of origin" - and that is an important step to acknowledge as well. I have certainly found myself in life making decisions which are the exact opposite to how my parents would have done it, just because that was the case. That sort of awareness is crucial as well - parenting in intentional opposite-mode is as dangerous as unconsciously continuing models we have not reflected through as the most appropriate in the "now" of this, our own life and family.

In other words, we need to be aware that we so easily "revert to type". And this is where today's Gospel story struck me; was Jesus "reverting to type" in this seemingly anger-burst? Now you could say this is a hugely speculative question - we don't know Jesus' type! But, you see, we do. We have this huge, huge insight - we know Jesus' DNA. Jesus is God's Son; in fact, more than any other human being we know, we know about Jesus' "type" because it is our knowing of God.

I am quite aware that this is very risky analysis - because our "knowing" of God is peculiar to each of us, and, particular to the Christian church that has evolved since the resurrection of Christ. However, when we look at the issue of Jesus' anger today, and where to place it, you could say we have hundreds of years of stories of God's anger. The Old Testament is full of accounts of God's anger with his people and subsequent judgement actions. Therefore, you could say Jesus was definitely "reverting to type" - but the key question then is..... how does that make you feel? and for those around him then, how did that make them feel? For the four Gospel writers, who have each recorded this "cleansing of the temple" story ... was it "in character" for Jesus, or "out of character". It had to portray what they remembered; but was it about what they remembered Jesus for??

We hear this story at this point of time in Lent because we always do, if we follow a Lectionary. So, why do we hear it in this build up to Easter? And how is it significant in the journey to the cross that we are currently undertaking with Christ?

Well, the interesting thing is that in Matthew, Mark and Luke this story is part of Christ's last week of life. This incident happens in the temple in his final visit to Jerusalem. It is told as one of the key triggers to Christ's arrest. They were looking for a reason, and he gave it to them... amongst many others. In particular, the authorities were really worried about how he could pull a crowd, and how he could hold a crowd. So, very interestingly, even though Jesus causes all this mayhem in the church, the temple, they don't arrest him at this point. But it would seem that they really have the "dirt" on him now.....

But today we have heard John's telling of this incident, and, interestingly, he places the story at the beginning of Christ's ministry. So, in the same way, it has the huge effect of calling attention to Jesus, and what he stands for - but almost as the beginning of his identity, not the end.

So it is not confirming his life on God's business; rather, it is initiating it. There could be no confusion as to what was Christ's passion at that point; I am here to do my Father's business, and my Father is God.

We believe that in everything Jesus did, and does, he is revealing a truth about God that is important for us. So we continue to ask - what do we do with Christ's anger, the anger of this story?

As I was intimating at the beginning, you and I have heard perhaps many insights to this reading - apology and justification theories etc. I think we should acknowledge that we find this aspect of Christ's character really confronting. For me, and perhaps for you, there is the inherent guilt about our own anger and what we do with it.

The key is, therefore, is to look at what Jesus DID with it. For Jesus, this combination of emotion and action, claimed his identity and from that point he affirmed that identity. He did God's work, and he brought the reverencing of God out into the lives of people, not locked up in formal rituals in the temple. In other words, he backed up his anger by practising what he preached.

Bishop Jonathan, in his book we are studying for Lent and the chapter we looked at this week "The journey to Jerusalem", gives several ideas as to what Jesus was doing in this incident. And then he sums up his own insight.... "the cleansing of the temple also suggests that Jesus did not attach an absolutely sacred value to the temple. He tempered its significance, suggesting that, for disciples of the kingdom, its ritual provisions would be superseded."

There is no clearer message than Jesus himself claiming that identity of bringing the new succession into the reality through all his actions. So I like this story placed at the beginning of Jesus' ministry rather than the end. We need to be confronted with Christ's identity of radical leader and, more importantly, the new realm of God's reign among us.

The season of Lent for all of us is also about claiming our Christian identity. We are to be known for doing God's business. Our identity is to be seen in practising what we preach. As individuals, and as community. The clear message for the church is that we are part of the new realm of being church, Christ's body, and our sacramental attachment can only be to him and what he stands for. We have to confront ourselves and God's church that Jesus Christ stands for and is the most radical and confronting of all leaders of all time - and this is who we belong to. This is our DNA; this is what we should always be when we "revert to type".

That identity, his God DNA, is made passionately clear in Jesus' response in the temple hypocrisy; and just as the gospel writer John claims that identity for Jesus in the beginning of his ministry, so too does Luke in that astounding pronouncement, also in the temple, when Jesus read from the book of Isaiah and claimed himself in that identity. Let me conclude as I read the translation from "The Message" :

God's Spirit is on me,
he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
to set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!"

His identity. Our identity. May we blessed with the courage to set the burdened and battered free.

The Lord be with you. And also with you.