Good Morning!
We’re going to begin today’s message with a word association game. Here’s how it works. I’ll give you a few words, and you tell me how they are connected. There’s a theme.
- Apple
- Seven
- Mirror
- Sleep
Answer: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Underwater
- Red hair
- Legs
- Voice
Answer: The Little Mermaid
- Snowman
- Ice
- Gloves
- Scandinavia
Answer: Frozen
The last one, Frozen, has been a family favorite for a little over 10 years. It tells the story of Princess Elsa, a girl born with special ice powers. Afraid of what her powers could do, she self-isolates in her castle, until her coronation day, where the gates are opened and the public enters to celebrate their new Queen. . Elsa, overwhelmed by the day, accidentally releases her ice powers, and causes her town of Arendelle to fall into “deep deep deep deep snow”. Anna, her younger sister, spends the movie trying to rescue the town and save her sister from the evil Prince Hans with the help of adorable snowman Olaf, ornery reindeer Sven, and humble iceman Kristoff.
It’s a cute movie (unless your kids have made you watch it a thousand times), and ultimately is a story about being human- love, , fear, good intentions, and protection.
See the reason that Elsa locked herself away in the first place was to protect others. She knew that her powers had the potential to hurt people – including her sister- so she lived a life of solace. But her good intentions weren’t actually what was best for the people she served.
And its this idea of good intentions and concealment that is the throughline to today’s Gospel story.
Today, we find Jesus directly after he blessed the water into wine at the wedding at Cana. He is early in his ministry, visiting Jerusalem for the Passover, as was tradition at the time. He arrives at the Temple, where he finds people selling doves, cattle, and sheep, and exchanging money. He creates a whip of sorts, and he overturns tables, chastising the Jewish leaders for making his Father’s house a marketplace. The Jewish leaders wonder why Jesus is doing this, and ask for a sign. Jesus tells them that they can destroy the temple, and he will rebuild it in three days. The story ends with a realization from the disciples, that Jesus is actually speaking of his body, and not the temple in which this all took place.
Today’s Gospel lesson is one about the importance of keeping God’s house sacred. It’s a warning about the importance of money in our everyday lives, and how that monetary importance impacts our work in the Church. It’s a reminder to us that Jesus had human emotions. He got really angry when it was justified. But the deeper I looked into the text this week, I got a slightly different message :it’s also a story of one of good intentions gone wrong.
I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly the people gathered at the temple, or the temple leaders were thinking as they prepared for the craziness that was Passover in Jerusalem. I’m sure they were trying to figure out ways to make the experience easier for those who traveled to the city for the holiday. It would have been very difficult (and probably a little gross) to carry a ritually deceased and blessed animal for sacrifice in the temple from your home to the City. Solution? Provide animals for purchase at the temple, to make the pilgrimage easier and give travelers one less thing to worry about. They knew that graven images were not allowed to be in the Temple, so they had a currency converting station, so people could exchange their Roman coins with Ceasar’s image for local ones. Yes, they charged a certain percentage to exchange coins, but it likely was well intentioned. The money was going to the Temple, anyway.
Ultimately, A person traveling from another land could come to the Temple, purchase an animal for ritual sacrifice, and have the right money for the occasion – all in the same place.
But their good intentions – while useful to some- were barriers to others. Just like Elsa’s decision to self-isolate was a good intention- to protect her sister and the people of Arendelle from her powers- those decisions hurt more than they helped. They kept Elsa away from her people, who were following a leader they could not see.
And the temple leaders were doing the same thing. By having this market-like experience outside the temple, they prevented those who could not afford a sacrificial animal or an increased exchange rate to have the whole experience, to celebrate Passover in a way that was important to them, in the way that everyone else was. The gates to them remain closed, and Jesus becomes angry- because there should not be barriers to experiencing God- for God is in Him, and in us all.
On Thursday, I received an email from Baird Tipson, inviting me to a Reconciling in Christ TaskForce meeting after our 10:45 service. Among items in the agenda is an understanding of welcome: As Baird put it,
In our welcoming statement, St. James states boldly that ALL are welcome. We print this in our bulletin for every worship service. We state it prominently on the wall. Our website identifies us as a Reconciling in Christ congregation. The challenge here, it seems to me, is to help every person who welcomes newcomers to our worship – greeters of course but also every one of us in the congregation – to be ready to convey that welcome.
We recognize that all are welcome in this space. And while that is a good start, we have to think too about the barriers that we put up, either in our congregation or more personally, in our hearts, that prohibits a full experience of God for all who come through these doors.
Do we have an idea of what people should be wearing to come into church, and treat those who are underdressed differently?
Do we ensure that those who have difficulty seeing or hearing can fully experience worship?
Do we encourage children to experience worship in all forms- singing, dancing, and clapping during lively music?
Are there spaces for people to go when church can feel overwhelming- spiritually or physically, and have space and time to process their experience?
Baird challenged the TaskForce to start opening up the gates of welcome through a few simple tasks:
Offering enthusiastic handshakes to every newcomer,
Sliding down the pew to make room,
Taking the initiative at the passing of the peace,
Offering assistance to those unfamiliar with our service book,
Engaging in short conversations after the end of the service, are all means to demonstrate our welcome.
Because, according to Frozen, love is an open door. Opening that door, or breaking open those gates can be scary. But doing so ensures that all can experience God in our church, and with each other, without cost.
How are we opening up the gates to all the people of Gettysburg this week?
Sermons at St. James Gettysburg 