Third Sunday in Lent Yr B March 7 2021

Remains of a building on the island of Iona, Scotland

Third Sunday in Lent Yr B March 7 2021

Exodus 20:1-17, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 2:13-22, Psalm 19

 

Today we move from Mark’s gospel to John’s, and one thing remains the same, location, location, location. But in a whole new way. Yes, where this story in John’s gospel is important, it’s very near the beginning, and where Jesus and the disciples are located, in the temple in Jerusalem, is also important. But location in this story not only is important, it becomes earth shattering. You see, Jesus is concerned about what is happening at the temple, money changing, desecration, and even idol worship. And, and this is the really important part, Jesus is saying something they have never heard before. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The temple priests could not figure him out. It had been hundreds of years since exile, when God assured the people that God was still with them. And then when they returned to their own lands they built the temple that is in our story today, and put God back inside. 

 

This temple tantrum of Jesus’ was quite unexpected, and Jesus’ words were unimaginable. The new, earth shattering, ground moving reality is that the location of God is no longer in the ark of the covenant, or in the holy of holies, God is now located in the person of Jesus. This is what Jesus is trying to tell them. The arc of John’s story begins in creation, moves through pain and suffering, death and resurrection, and ends in ascension. During the course of this story, God in Jesus is in our midst, and when the incarnation of God dies, rises from the dead, and ascends, humanity is not left alone. 

 

So this is the new reality Jesus is trying so hard to convey to them. But the words are so hard to put together and to understand. How do you describe the glorious impossible? How do you come close to the inconceivable incarnation? How do you begin to conceive of a reality that is unreasonable? This is what Jesus is asking of them, this is what Jesus is trying to tell them. Jesus is trying to show them that everything they thought they knew about a messiah is turned upside down and inside out. 

 

And Jesus tells them that the proper place of worship is no longer the temple. Oh my gosh! Can you hear the weight of that statement? 

 

The proper place to encounter God is in the relationship, it is with Jesus who is God in our midst. God’s heart’s desire is relationship with the beloveds, with you, and me, and those we love, those we can’t stand to be around, those whose presence is a threat to us, those whose gender is uncertain to us. God has left the building, and God is now in our midst. This is what is at the heart of Jesus’ I am statements. I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way the truth and the life, I am the vine. All metaphors to convey relationship, and the intimacy of this relationship. All ways Jesus tries to tell those who follow what this relationship really looks like and is about. God dwells in us; we dwell in God. This is what is eternal life, new life, abundant life. 

 

And what is even crazier than God incarnate, God in their midst, God who is put to death on a cross, is God in Spirit. God let loose into the wild. God who cannot be contained, controlled, confined. God in Spirit; Trinity, earth-maker, pain-bearer, life-giver. 

 

This is what Jesus means to be destroyed and to be raised up, and what John points us to. You see, once God is incarnate, once God is human flesh, God can die, and God does die. It looks like loss, it looks like foolishness, but this is the good news. This is the profound reality of Jesus. This is the profound love of the creator. This is the profound sadness of human life. This is the profound healing of love, God’s love for us, and our love for our neighbor. Jesus’s scars reach out to our scars, and we are healed. 

 

The zeal for God’s house is now in the flesh, and this wonderfully good news calls followers of Jesus to be the bearers of God’s love not just in our churches but in every part of our lives. We are to be in the world to do the work we have been given to do; to love and serve God as faithful witnesses of Christ our lord. 

 

And I believe that is what this covid-tide that we are in is all about. We are called out of our churches, out of our boxes, out of everything that has been normal for us, into this new and exciting and sometimes terrifying place. We are called to reorientation, we are called to see, and hear, and feel, all of the newness of this time. It is a time of revelation; God is pulling back the curtain and showing us the ugliness and festering of the ways humanity has not been lovely and kind to one another. But God is also pulling back the curtain and showing us how we can be together. How we can care for each other, how we can love and support one another. What our communities of love and faith can be. 

 

Our heart’s home is where God is, and we bear God with us to all the places. We smell God in the incense and in the oil when we are in our church, and also in the wind and the rain of the land that is home. We see God in the stained glass and the candles, and also in the eyes of the people we encounter. We hear God in the silence, and in the music, and the voices of those we gather to worship with, and also in the sound of the babies, and the cracking of the ice, and the voice of protest. 

 

God has left the building; God is on the loose. The earth trembles under our feet. Thanks be to God.