“What If He Shows Up?”

John 2:13-22

March 19, 2006

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

For almost five years now, Susie and I have taken turns reading our daughter, Annie Grace, bedtime stories. The books that line her shelves are both family heirlooms (books that my mother and dad read to me and books that Susie’s mother and dad read to her; hardback books called Golden Books, books like, The Poky Little Puppy and Little Bunny Follows His Nose and Good Night Little Bear) and books that have been given to her by Susie and me, by other members of our family, and by church members in two different churches over the course of her almost five years.

So usually Annie Grace ends up in one of our laps or we end up sitting on her bed reading either one long story or a couple of shorter ones. Right now, Annie Grace and I are reading a Barbie book, given to us by Joy Mitchell. It is the story of the mystery of the pink pearl. Each night we read a chapter or two and since it has six chapters, we have read it for the better part of a week.

On one of the shelves of her bookcase is a book that was given to Annie Grace by one of my minister friends and his wife. The book is a classic, written in 1951 by Joan Gayle Thomas. So far it is in its nineteenth edition. This little book, whose title is If Jesus Came to My House tells the story of a little boy who imagines what it would be like if Jesus came to his house, as a little boy about his age.

Now I know that it is not usual to begin a sermon by quoting a few lines from a children’s book, but by now you are used to me doing things that aren’t usual. I think that you will quickly see the connection between Jesus coming to the boy’s house and our gospel lesson for this morning. By the way, I asked Annie Grace to help me find the book on her shelves the other night and when we did, she said, “I love books about Jesus, daddy.” I hope that she always feels that way.

So let me read a few lines from this great little book. It begins, “If Jesus came to my house and knocked upon the door, I’m sure I’d be more happy than I’ve ever been before. I’d show Him all the places that are nicest in the house, the hole behind the stairs where I pretend that I’m a mouse. The little window up above where I can stand and see, the people passing down below and yet they can’t see me. And then I think I’d show Him the corner in the hall where I’m sometimes rather frightened by the shadows on the wall. I always have to hurry when I’m going past at night, but hand in hand with Jesus, I’d be perfectly all right. And when at last the day was done and shadows crossed the sky, I’d see Him to the garden gate and there we’d say goodbye. And He’d perhaps say, “Thank you for a lovely afternoon,” and I would say, ‘I do so hope you’ll come back very soon.’” And then he’d smile and wave good-bye and so would end our day but all the house would seem to smile because He’d been our way.

Then the book turns a corner and continue for several more pages, but I would like for you to hear the corner it turns. The author writes, “I know the little Jesus can never call on me the way that I’ve imagined, like coming in for tea.”

What if Jesus did come calling on us like he did so long ago? What if he did that not as a little boy, but as a grown savior on his way, eventually, to a cross. What if he did that, oh, let’s say he did that in Jerusalem, at the temple at a very important time and festival, the Passover of the Jews.

What if he did that? You know that he did do that, because it is the basis for our scripture lesson for this morning, taken from the second chapter of John’s gospel. I don’t mind telling you that the lesson is a little disturbing. I’ve avoided it at all costs in my now eleven years as a preacher. There is no sermon in any file about Jesus walking into the temple and tearing up the place.

After all, this isn’t the picture of Jesus that when images come to mind, we picture. The truth is that the gospel stories tell us that Jesus has deep feelings. You will remember that Jesus gets upset to the point of tears when he learns of the death of his good friend, Lazarus. John writes what may be the most powerful line in all of scripture, “Jesus wept.” It is not the only time that Jesus cries in gospel accounts. He grieves over Jerusalem for its rejection of the prophets who were sent to it. In John’s thirteenth chapter you will find these words, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that stones the prophets and kills those who are sent to it. How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.”

So Jesus cries. He also is filled with compassion. He heals those who are sick and restores their lives and he looks at some people with compassion. “For they are like a sheep without a shepherd.” And Jesus gets mad. That is what we discover in our lesson for today and his anger bothers us. This is not the good shepherd who gathers the lambs and takes them home. Jesus does not do that in this story.

I can remember being in a Sunday School class when I was in High School. Jimmy Freeman was our teacher for us tenth graders. This lesson was the one that he was supposed to teach. He had a hard time with it. It was great for us teenagers who loved to point out that this was the same Jesus who told us to turn the other cheek. And here he was chasing people around the Temple with a homemade whip!

So what are we to say about this story? What are we to do with it? I guess that we could ignore it. We could flip past its pages, not read it, and do as I have done these past few years, and not preach it. Those are a couple of the options. Another one is that we could rationalize the story. We could say something like, “Oh, this is Jesus being dramatic. This is Jesus trying to get his point across. This is Jesus acting like one of the Old Testament prophets! Or, and this seems to be the right way to handle it, we could look at this story as some kind of a revelation.

Inside it, we could find a lesson, a truth that is important. We could see this story through the eyes of Jesus and notice what made him angry. I know what made him angry. Selling animals for sacrifices was important for those who had come a great distance for this important Jewish festival. If you had come from a great distance, it would be hard to bring the obligatory lamb or bull with you. And there was a Temple tax to pay. Money from a foreign land had to be exchanged to Jerusalem currency. The tax had to be paid; the money had to be exchanged. It wasn’t the selling of the animals or the exchange of the currency that made Jesus mad. I think that Jesus is upset because more stock (excuse the pun) is given to sacrifices and taxes that is given to the worship of God.

Let’s do something here. Let’s make this temple a church. If it were a church how would we answer the question, “What if Jesus should show up in church?” My mother would be proud of my mentioning a great novel in one of our sermons. There is a great scene is the novel, The Brothers Karamazov. In it, the author asks what would have happened if Jesus had come at the time of the inquisition. He said that the cardinals might not have let Jesus in the church because they knew what he would do. Jesus would upset everyone. So the cardinal says to Jesus, “We have captured you in our doctrines and in our rituals. We have made you consistent and the people love it; it’s reliable. We give them what they want. So, for their sake, go away. You will just upset them. For their sake, don’t come back.” What would happen if Christ came to church?

This is a tough story and I think the way that we should handle it is to ask what would happen if Jesus showed up here. What if Jesus showed up here? What if Jesus appeared here at St. Paul. I can just imagine him walking around and saying something like, “Nice place. I love the renovation. This is a big place. How many sheep do you think that we could get in here? We all know what Jesus would say. He would say, “Destroy this church and in three days, I will raise it up.” We might respond to that by saying, “But Jesus, we’ve been here, at this location since 1950. The Sanctuary is so beautiful. The renovation is almost paid for. We only have $50,000 less on our debt.” That would not impress Jesus. He would still say, “Destroy this church and I will raise it up.”

This all means that this church cannot contain God. When God acted to save people, he did not do it in a church. He did it on a cross, at a place just outside of town where they executed criminals. Jesus did this in a graveyard where people cry for those who have died. All we can really do it to point to God. So if what goes on here points to God, then that is all right. If not, there is going to be trouble.

What if Jesus showed up here at St. Paul? What if he signed the attendance book? Would he mark that he wanted to join the church? Would he indicate that he is a new resident? What if he marked that he desired a call? What if I called on him? Where would he be staying and what would he say to me? If I gave Jesus the chance to preach here, what would he say to all of us? These are important questions. John puts this story here so that we can ask those questions. If Jesus showed up in the church, what would he say?

There is an old story about a minister who moved to a French village to become the pastor. He started out by calling on people in their homes. He went to one house and talked with a wife. When her husband came home, she told her husband about the visit. He asked, “What did he say?” She said, “He asked, ‘Does Christ live here?’” The man said, “I hope that you told him that we are respectable, God fearing people.” She said, “He didn’t ask that. He asked, “Does Christ live here.” The husband said, “I hope that you told him that we attend church every Sunday. I hope that you pointed out to him that we are regular attenders.” His wife said, “He did not ask that. All he asked was, ‘Does Christ live here?’”

The cleansing of the temple, this difficult story, just might be here to get us to imagine what it would be like if Jesus showed up asking questions. Let us pray.