"Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" says Jesus in today's reading from John. All the gospels contain a version of this story, and I learned it as a small child. As a child it seemed a simple enough story, but I find it more troubling as I get older.
The activities in the Temple -- the money changers and the animal sellers -- were integral to worship there. They allowed pilgrims who had come from foreign lands to convert their money to the proper Jewish currency in order to make offerings. And people who had journeyed far could not bring animals with them for sacrifice, but they could buy them at the temple. And none of these things were happening inside the temple proper. They were out in the courtyard, not unlike when tickets to the spaghetti supper are on sale in the church lounge.
It's a lot easier to enjoy this story when the folks Jesus throws out are evil and nasty, not at all like me. But when they are simply part of the religious apparatus, not so different from congregations taking credit cards or setting up bank drafts for paying your pledge, the story hits a little closer to home.
I take it as a given that all religion has a tendency to try to make God and God's blessings manageable. But Jesus seeks to pull us back to the core of faith, trusting ourselves to the provision of God rather than setting up systems to manage them.
As a pastor, I think that religious institutions are essential to our faith lives. But still, we need to remember where our ultimate loyalties lie, to God who is revealed to us through Jesus the Christ.
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