cholley’s holy week journey

Tuesday, April 7

Mark 11:15-18
When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants and their customers. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the stalls of those selling doves,  and he stopped everyone from bringing in merchandise.  He taught them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a place of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so enthusiastic about Jesus’ teaching.

I have to stop at the temple as part of my holy week journey. This passage has always had a profound effect on me. Jesus comes into town, hailed as king, and like other kings and generals who would come into town, goes to the temple, and as king, lays claim of God’s house.

What is significant is that the money changers and merchants were most likely set up in the outer courts of the temple, the Court of the Gentiles. Jesus is embarking on a mission which will fling open the doors of the new Kingdom to all people, not limited to Jews only. What has happened in the temple? The only place in the temple that non-Jews are allowed to be in is over run with merchants! It is probable that the merchants were selling doves and lambs for people to take in as their Passover sacrifice. What we end up with is “God’s people,” intent on keeping their religious rituals, who could care less if there is room for the “Gentiles.”

This bothers me greatly — I have seen churches that in a sense have filled up the outer courts with so much “stuff,” rules and empty religous rituals, that there isn’t any room for the outsiders, or any desire to make room for them.  I was once told to leave a church because my “lifestyle was not good enough.”  So is that the kind of kingdom Jesus lived and died for? I think not.  Let’s start overthrowing tables, and make room for those who so desperately need in.

cholley’s Holy Week Journey

Monday, April 6, 2009

Luke 19:28-44 –

Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey amidst of shouts of,  “Hosanna! God save us!” The people gathered have Messianic fever! They want to be saved! They want out of their bondage! They want to be free! In Matthew’s Gospel it says that the entire city is stirred…shaken up, when Jesus enters the city. Something was up…something was going to happen.

But wait, let’s back up just a tad. Luke mentions something important, I think. Just as Jesus is getting to Jerusalem, he stops, looks over God’s holy city, and Jesus weeps.

“If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace….”

“Hosanna! God save us!”

“…but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you…because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

“Hosanna! God save us!”

Oh, but God, do it my way if you please…

The Jews that day shouting, “Hosanna! God save us!” wanted political deliverance.

And Jesus weeps, because he knows the road he is on will bring so much more than freedom from an oppressive government. His is a spiritual solution not a political solution. And Jesus weeps, because he knows that they just don’t — won’t — get it. Jesus enters the city weeping for the city, not for himself, though he knows what the end of the week will bring him.

“Hosanna! God save us!”

Was Jesus thinking, “uh, I would if you would let me! Why don’t you let me do it my way?”

I cry out, you cry out, “Hosanna, God save me!” I want God to save me from my enemies; to save me from “bad stuff.” The question is, I think, am I really willing to let God save me from that which  enslaves me the most…myself?

The God who smokes

I am reading a book, “The God Who Smokes — Scandalous Meditations on Faith” by Timothy Stoner. The back cover says that Stoner “celebrates the good within Emergent while providing a balanced and thoughtful critique….”  Stoner “provides an honest response to the postmodern cry for authentic spirituality.”  Ok, so now you know somewhat where the author is coming from….

I am liking what Stoner is saying, for he portrays a God who transcends the notion that everything is hunky dory and that there is a good, pat little “God” answer for every thing. I have struggled too many years with the God of pat answers. I have felt lost, I have felt abandoned, I have felt unfaithful, I have felt even ungodly (hard for a pastor to say) because I cannot, for the most part, line up with that kind of God.

“I join all those other fringe dwellers and shout out, “Jesus is good!” But I also want to link arms with another timid introvert, an unassuming little beaver speaking about Aslan, the King of Narnia, and say, ‘Yes, He is Good, but He’s NOT safe!’ He is a lion after all.” (Stoner p. 27)

“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Joseph, Moses, and David is not predictable, domesticated, gentlemanly, or safe. Not for that matter is the God of Job. What we want is nice, what we get is the Lion of Judah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the King of kings, the Lord of Lords.” (Stoner p. 60)

Stoner goes on to talk about the God who “dropped” him. When he had sacrificed much to serve him, and thought God would provide blessing, he ended up feeling totally abandoned. Like Job. Like me. Maybe like you. Just who is this God?

Feeling like you have been dropped by God is downright devastating. And no pat little answer is going to fix the situation. In fact, many times you won’t get an answer from God. Job didn’t. But he did get the Answerer.

I’m tired of trying to figure out all the answers. I just want God — even if he isn’t “safe.”

“Being dropped hurts. But having a fake God made in your own image can destroy you. Sometimes it’s only in the dropping that fake gets broken and the real appears.” (Stoner p. 71)

Lord, please give me the courage to go forward even when my questions remain unanswered. Thank you that even when I feel dropped, in reality I am only free falling and ultimately you are there to catch me. Amen.

Fall

I have spent the last seven days in the Ozarks, at Table Rock Lake. Fall vacations are the best! I managed to spend the week disengaged from “work” if that is what you want to call it. Pretty proud of myself! We have spent seven days watching the fall colors change before our eyes — eye candy for sure! It always amazes me that trees can be so beautiful even as their lovely “garments” fade and decay and fall away. But then….they get a fresh new start come spring! Could the dieing away of some of my “garments” be just as beautiful? I could let loose and let fall away garments of pride, rebellion, hurt…well you fill in your own blanks. As I do this I know I will probably feel a bit naked, you know, vulnerable. But I will trust in the goodness of my Creator to clothe me with new garments, more beautiful than the ones that have fallen away. How lovely! And then there comes the time when once again I will need –yes I know I will — to let fall away yet other garments, and the cycle continues, the cycle of sanctification. I love fall.