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March 3, 3024 – Third Sunday of Lent

Focus Scripture: John 2:13-22

The Work of Worship

 

“Zeal for your house will consume me.”

The people selling livestock and birds set up shop in the wrong place. The money changers, too, did not see this coming: Jesus, Son of God, literally turning the tables on them. Even the disciples were likely surprised by Jesus’s behavior. After all, they had seen this commerce before and would surely have seen it as normal. Until that day.

There are several takeaways from this Gospel lesson, all of which we can and should apply in today’s context. Let’s look at four.


First, God takes this concept of God’s house seriously. We need look no further than the detailed direction given to the Israelites starting in Exodus 25. The wandering in the desert stopped for a time so all the skilled craftspeople could come together to create the tabernacle. In that context, God told Moses in verses 8 and 9 of that chapter that this would be a “sanctuary” for God. They were to follow the plans precisely. After all, this would be God’s dwelling during this time with God’s people.

Fast forward to Jesus’s ministry, and we see that Jesus was equally serious about the temple being God’s dwelling. Jesus told these merchants and money traders, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” Emphasis on “my Father’s house.” It was not a bazaar or some roadside flea market. Nor should our churches come to resemble that kind of atmosphere today.

To summarize that point, God’s house must be kept pure and holy. It must be a place where we can be in God’s presence with each other. It is where we demonstrate in community that God is our God, and we are his people. When we do, we can sense the presence of God and God’s work in our lives.

Second, our churches, our temples, including this one, must be a place of sanctuary, a place of calm, and a place of focus where we can worship. This worship requires both focus and action. It takes work. At its core, worship is communication, both inbound and outbound. We are speaking, singing, and listening. We are communicating with our bodies, our expressions, or gestures, our voices. We are using what God has created, creatures spending time and making the effort to worship our creator and Lord.

In my secular role as a trainer, I often help people to understand the elements of what we call active listening. The points are simple, though not so easy to implement consistently. First is to eliminate distractions. If we want to listen for God’s word in our worship, what distractions can you eliminate or reduce?

Second, we encourage people to listen hard for meaning, to understand, not just hear the words. Understanding takes effort. It takes concentration. It is work.

Lastly, we should respond in a way that proves we were paying attention. When we understand where another is coming from, when we get that person’s meaning, we should communicate in some way that we were in the moment and listening. In a human-to-human context, we might say, “So, if I understand you properly, you mean…”

In our relationship with God, our response and understanding are different, and they are vital. If you were to open your United Methodist Hymnal to page 2, you would find what is called “The Basic Pattern of Worship.” After the entrance, we find “Proclamation and Response.” We hear God speaking through the scripture lessons and in other ways. Then we respond.

Quoting from the hymnal, “Responses to God’s Word include acts of commitment and faith with offerings of concerns, prayers, gifts, and service for the world and one another.” Put simply, we hear God’s Word, we internalize it, and we act.

Our second point, then, is that we are here to listen to God’s Word proclaimed together, we are to listen to the living voice of God speaking to us in the moment, and then we are to act on what we have heard. We are here to focus on God, worship, and understanding of God’s message.

Third, we should be passionate about our worship and our relationship with God. The disciples recalled Psalm 69:9, “It is zeal for your house that has consumed me.” Even when we are not feeling it, we should do it anyway. This 69th Psalm is a lamentation. The writer is complaining about sinking in the mire and God seeming to be far away, turned from the writer’s need. Despite that perception, the writer’s zeal persists. And when we get to the end of this Psalm, we hear these words:

 

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

For the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own who are in bonds.

Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

-          Psalm 69:30-34 (NRSVue)

 

The Psalmist’s passion for God is clear. Are we working on our relationship with God in worship so we can express the same type of feeling?

Finally, we must acknowledge God’s work in all of this. This is crucial! Our worship is a means of grace. God can and does work in us and through us when we come to God in worship. We put ourselves in a place where we can better hear God’s voice, we can better feel the nudges of the Holy Spirit, and we can better learn from the example set by Jesus Christ.

This worship is not one-way. It is reciprocal. We move closer to God and to each other. And God gives to us through God’s living word. These words and this spiritual support from each other and from the Holy Spirit working through us and in us show us that God is alive and working always. God never leaves us. God is our God, and we are God’s people. Let’s do the work of worship to make that bond and covenant ever stronger. Amen.

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You are welcome to join the congregation of First United Methodist Church of Shelton (CT) in person or online at 10 AM Eastern Time any and every Sunday. Services are streamed live, and past services are recorded. The church's web address is www.UMCShelton.org.

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Questions? Comments? Feel free to post your thoughts. Please keep it civil. Peace to you, and thanks for reading. - Bill Florin

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Art: The Merchants Chased from the Temple (Les vendeurs chassés du Temple). James Tissot (1886-94). Source: Brooklyn Museum (URL: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4543)

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