April 6, 2020 The Spring of our Discontent Scripture: Matthew 21: 12 – 13
Holy Week, 2020 Monday
Immediately after the “triumphal entry into Jerusalem,” Matthew gets Jesus off the donkey and into the Temple, as though Jesus cannot wait to get into trouble. As we walk this path with Jesus to the cross, let’s notice what he is saying to us as much as what he is saying to those around him.
I’ve watched lots of things be sold at church: Girl Scout and Boy Scout stuff, high school band things, bake sales, craft bazaars, and all the other things that fund raise for one organization or another. Preachers on TV have berated people selling things at church, only to jump on the bandwagon by having a coffee kiosk put in the new, huge church that they have built. “Be sure and by a church t-shirt,” they hawk from their pulpits.
It was not the buying and selling, per se, to which Jesus objected; many of the things we’ve purchased at church have gone to support mission and special projects that do good. Jesus was objecting to the selling of things for sacrifice, selling what people needed to do their religious duty.
What if we charged for a seat in the pews? If sitting in a pew was part of our duty as a Christian and as a citizen, as it was to a Jew of Jesus’ time, what then? Poor people would not be able to participate, or else we would have to charge different rates for different pews. Of course, we all have studied history and know that during the Middle Ages, the Church allowed people to buy shorter time in Purgatory, allowed them to buy masses to be said for the dead, and charged for various religious services. A rich person could do pretty much anything they wanted to because they believed that they could buy enough priests to pray them into Purgatory instead of Hell.
That’s the whole thing with this story and speaks to the hypocrisy that led to the Reformation. Jesus had nothing against sacrifices people offered to God; but the change in the practice of bringing your own animal as opposed to dropping by a kiosk to buy a dove or lamb and pretending that it was your sacrifice: therein lies the issue!
Jesus’ popularity began to wain at this point. It’s as though he wanted to make sure that he had turned as many people against him as possible. As we walk through the week with him, let’s try to realize that his teachings are not some sweet message of pie in the sky in the sweet by and by; they are radical departures from a comfortable religion that just marks time on earth.
Today, think about the teaching of Jesus that makes you most uncomfortable. If you can’t think of anything, think again. I know what Jesus said that sometimes even makes me angry at him. Christianity is not meant to be easy. Seems I remember Jesus saying something about “taking up your cross.”
Yikes!
Prayer: Help us to see beyond the easy sometimes easy road of faith to the hard truth that You are leading us to, our God, in Jesus’ name, amen.
About jamiebrame
Greetings, fellow earthlings. I'm the retired Program Director at Christmount, the national retreat, camp, and conference center of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), in Black Mountain, NC. From September 2019 through October, 2020, I served Timberlake Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Lynchburg, VA, as interim minister. After taking more than a year off, First Christian Church (DoC), Wilson, NC, offered me the position of Interim Minister, beginning May 10, 2022.
Originally from Eden, NC, I graduated from John Motley Morehead High School, earned a BA in Religion and Philosophy at Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College), and eked out a Master of Divinity from the Divinity School at Duke University. I served, in various positions, churches (part time and full time) in North Carolina and Georgia, and have lived in Black Mountain, NC, since 1989. I married Renae in 1992 (she refers to these years as "looooooooooong" years.
I've spent the past 50 years or so trying to practice Christian contemplative prayer with some touches of Zen meditation to help the journey along. Married to a wife who is much holier than I am, I am fortunate to learn from her daily about how to do this thing called spirituality. Being an ordained minister doesn't make me holy (but occasionally, as you'll read, a little sanctimonious, so forgive me in advance!); but I hope that I put my education to good use.
I'd love to be considered a spiritual teacher, but I know myself too well to claim that. While I do a bit of teaching, I think the best teaching we do is when we remain silent (the old desert abba said something like, "if you won't learn from my silence, you won't learn from my talking"). But silence shouldn't turn into quietism, and we do have to speak out and act for justice and fairness and equality for all.
I frequently ask myself the question, "Does it matter?" about the major - and minor - issues of the day. What I think matters: love for God, equality, fairness, loving our neighbor, feeding hungry people, housing homeless ones, clothing naked ones, and especially caring for children; basically, caring for those who have some trouble caring for themselves. AND our relationship with God.
What doesn't matter: what you think of me. I'm not very Christ-like. You won't hear me talking about all the things I do for others, or all the things I do for God - I was taught that It's not about me, and using good works to get attention for myself isn't what Christian faith is about - look up "narcissism" on Google. I'm not sure Jesus thinks it matters much that I am like him or not, but I do. The old story from the rabbis is probably apropo: when I am hauled up before God at the end of time, God isn't going to ask me why I wasn't more like someone else: I will be asked why I wasn't more like me. The rabbis tell the story better.
I'm still a work in progress, as Renae will attest to.
Finally, I just hope that something you read here will make you think. Use what you can, ignore the rest. Go read some of the desert saints. Read the classics. Take care of people, never point to yourself, and don't follow me: I'm just hoping to be one more signpost to God.
And as one friend reminded me the week before I left Christmount, "It matters."
Oh, and my favorite color is probably blue, and I love cats, and I love my wife's music. I don't like beets.
Does It Matter 