Lent III -Year B 03/03/2024

ent III
Sean C. Kim
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
3 March 2024
 
 
“Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables” (John 2:15). An angry Jesus is not how we ordinarily picture him in our minds. We prefer the soft and tender images of Jesus – the shepherd with a lamb in his arms, the compassionate healer of the sick and diseased, the lover of children. And yet here he is, driving out people and animals, overturning tables, and shouting, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” (John 2:16).
​
Known as the cleansing of the temple, this episode in the life and ministry of Jesus is found in all four Gospels. So, what do we make of the angry Jesus? For one thing, it shows us that he is human, experiencing the full range of feelings and emotions. Elsewhere in the Gospels, we see Jesus weeping when his friend Lazarus dies (John 11:1-44). And, although we aren’t actually told this, we can imagine that Jesus smiled and laughed at the feasts and banquets that he attended, which we do read about. In the Gospel of John, in fact, the cleansing of the temple takes place immediately after his first miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). I picture a happy Jesus at the wedding feast, surrounded by family and friends, drinking wine. Jesus was God Incarnate, but he was also human like us.

Jesus’ anger in the temple was a response to what he perceived to be the greed and desire for profit that was contaminating the sacred grounds of the temple. Biblical scholars also point to the corruption of the temple hierarchy and Roman bureaucracy that benefited from the commercial transactions.[1] In the other Gospels, Jesus accuses the merchants and money changers of turning a house of prayer into a “den of robbers.”[2] So, it was a righteous anger, Jesus’ zeal for the sanctity of His Father’s house (John 2:17).

Throughout the history of our faith, there are many instances of those who have been moved by righteous anger and filled with holy zeal to do great things for God. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther was angered by the corruption and worldliness of the medieval church to spark the movement of reform and revival known as the Protestant Reformation, of which we are heirs. In the nineteenth century, William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament, and other abolitionists were angered by the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery to work tirelessly for the emancipation of slaves in the British empire. Today on our church calendar is the Feast of John and Charles Wesley. And I know there are many former Methodists and Nazarenes in our midst. John Wesley was angered by the apathy of the Church of England toward the working classes, so he got up on his horse and traveled the length and breadth of England to preach the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. During his ministry, he traveled a total of 250,000 miles, on horseback; that would be the equivalent of circling the globe ten times. And his brother, Charles Wesley, wrote 6,500 hymns, infusing the Methodist movement with some of the most beautiful hymns ever written, many of which we find in our Hymnbook.

As some of you know, my academic training is in church history, in particular, the history of Christianity in Korea. In my research, I come across many instances of righteous anger. When Protestant missionaries first came to Korea in the late 1800s, they were angered by the sight of children abandoned in the streets. So, what did they do? They gathered them into the orphanages that they established. Christians were also angered by the total exclusion of women from education to set up the first schools for women in Korean history. A testament to the powerful legacy of this ministry, the world’s largest women’s university is in Seoul, with a student population of over 20,000, and it was founded by the missionary Mary Scranton.

This past Friday was March 1, and it is celebrated as Independence Day in Korea. On March 1, 1919, Korean Christians, angered by the tyranny and injustice of Japanese colonial rule, spearheaded national protests for independence, involving more than a million people. While colonial rule did not come to an immediate end, it did bring about major changes in policy, allowing greater rights and freedoms.

There are countless examples from Christian history in which the righteous anger of the faithful have brought about extraordinary transformations in society and politics. In fact, the modern world as we know it is filled with the profound legacies of Christian activism.

But our world is still in need of change and reform. We have new problems and issues that arouse our anger. And as followers of Jesus, we are called to channel this anger into a zeal for good works, as our forebears have done throughout the centuries.

The Season of Lent is a time of reflection and spiritual growth, a period when we join Our Lord Jesus in the wilderness for forty days. It’s most often associated with giving things up, like wine and chocolate. But it is also a time to do more.

As you look around the world today, what makes you angry – gun violence, homelessness, homophobia, racism? The Church provides opportunities for you to do something about these issues, and we have dedicated, hard-working leaders who are moving us forward.

As I mentioned last week, Lenette Johnson and Philip Lofflin are working with the diocese to address the issue of gun violence. And if you are interested in reaching out to the homeless and hungry in our city, talk with Raja Reed about our Blessing Bags program or with Dcn. Lynda about volunteering at Cherith Brook. If you are interested in working against homophobia, consider helping out with Pride Weekend, coming up in June. Raja is part of the diocesan committee that is busy at work planning the various activities. During Lent, we also have a book study, led by Dcn. Lynda, examining the church’s complicity in racism. And this coming week, I will be meeting with Dcn. Lynda and parishioners John Simpson and Margaret Akdeniz about reviving our Social Justice Committee. I imagine part of our discussion will be what in our society makes us angry and inspired to work for the greater good. So, there are many opportunities here at the church and in the diocese for you to become involved.

In our Anglo-Catholic tradition, we talk a lot about holiness. And holiness consists not just in our commitment to prayer and worship but also good deeds. As we pray in the General Thanksgiving, which is a part of the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer, we show forth God’s praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to his service, and by walking before him in holiness and righteousness all our days.[3] Jesus in his day cleansed the temple to make it holy again. And our good deeds today are part of what makes the church holy.

So, dear sisters and brothers in Christ, I pray that during this Season of Lent, your righteous anger at injustice and suffering will move you to action. I pray that this time of prayer and reflection will reveal God’s will for you in the world. I pray that God grant you a Most Holy Lent.

[1] Marilyn Salmon, “Commentary on John 2:13-22,” Working Preacher. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-john-213-22
[2] Mary Hinkle Shore, “Commentary on John 2:13-22,” Working Preacher. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-john-213-22-4
[3] The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 1979), 58-59.