13<\/sup> The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n 14<\/sup> In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.<\/p>\n 15<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n 16<\/sup> He told those who were selling the doves, „Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!“<\/p>\n 17<\/sup> His disciples remembered that it was written, „Zeal for your house will consume me.“<\/p>\n 18<\/sup> The Jews then said to him, „What sign can you show us for doing this?“<\/p>\n 19<\/sup> Jesus answered them, „Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.“<\/p>\n 20<\/sup> The Jews then said, „This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?“<\/p>\n 21<\/sup> But he was speaking of the temple of his body.<\/p>\n 22<\/sup> After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (Joh 2:13-22 NRS)<\/p>\n Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n Several years ago I made the conscious decision that I would never ever preach politics from the pulpit.\u00a0 This decision came after teaching a Sunday School class at another church where I was asked:\u00a0 \u201cIs it the duty of a Christian to pay our taxes?\u201d\u00a0 That question was prompted by an individual who made his living off of politics.\u00a0 My answer to him was biblical:\u00a0 give to Caesar was is Caesar\u2019s, and to God what is God\u2019s.\u00a0 Since that conversation happened, politics is by far the #1 thing that I leave out of a sermon.\u00a0 But there are also other reasons that I leave them out.\u00a0 For example, not everyone here believes in the same way.\u00a0 That\u2019s ok.\u00a0 Our congregation proves that people of differing opinion can live, work, and pray peacefully together.\u00a0 There are too many congregations out there (mainly on TV) that I think cross the line between teaching and brainwashing, and they supposedly do it in the name of Jesus.\u00a0 I remember the presidential election that we had 4 years ago, and how a church not 10 miles from here had a candidate preach on a Sunday morning.\u00a0 If that\u2019s not an endorsement, I don\u2019t know what is.\u00a0 In my opinion, our denomination, the ELCA, gets way too involved in politics.\u00a0 Letters have been sent to the Secretary of State, both for and against issues, money gets spent in ways that I don\u2019t think that it should.\u00a0 Political agendas get pushed for and against issues.\u00a0 As the church, I am not sure we should be doing that.\u00a0 But that is me.\u00a0 I know plenty of pastors also in this denomination that would disagree with me.\u00a0 As much as I\u2019d like to call them idiots and say they are wrong, I also have to keep in mind that they are doing the same thing, calling me an idiot and saying that I am wrong.\u00a0 \u00a0Maybe I am wrong, and if so, I can live with that.\u00a0 But my core convictions tell me that our focus as a church should not be on politics, but should constantly be on God and trying to live the example set by Jesus.<\/p>\n The example that we see today is of a Jesus that publicly confronts both the religious and political institutions for wrong-doings. \u00a0This story, often called \u201cThe Cleansing of the Temple\u201d is one of the few stories that appear in all four Gospels.\u00a0 The inclusion by all four lifts up its historical importance and accuracy.\u00a0 Today we have the version out of John\u2019s accout of the Gospel, which portrays this text in the early parts of Jesus\u2019 ministry.\u00a0 This is actually the second sign in John\u2019s account, the first being the miracle at the wedding of Cana where Jesus turns water into wine.\u00a0 In Jerusalem at Passover Jesus has a much larger crowd than he had at Cana.\u00a0 Passover was important to the Jews, and thousands of pilgrims flocked to Jerusalem because that is where the temple was.\u00a0 Being a good Jew, Jesus also went there, but when he gets there, he sees a sight that makes him very mad.\u00a0 He makes a whip, and drives out the animals.\u00a0 He takes the money changers coins and dumps them on the ground.\u00a0 He turns over their tables.\u00a0 I would argue that this is perhaps one of the most emotional moments in the life of Jesus.\u00a0 This emotion is centered on where Jesus is, which we see is in his Father\u2019s house.\u00a0 The sanctity of God\u2019s house has been desecrated.\u00a0 A mockery has been made of the Jew\u2019s most holiest and sacred place.\u00a0 But for Jesus, this place has another name:\u00a0 \u201cMy Father\u2019s House.\u201d<\/p>\n Back then the temple was a very complex place.\u00a0 It was God\u2019s permanent dwelling place, a sign of the covenants, and God\u2019s eternal presence with his people.\u00a0 Jews throughout the region made pilgrimages to it during the major feast times.\u00a0 It was the cornerstone of the Jewish faith, especially since the region was occupied and controlled by the Romans.\u00a0 Even the Chief Priest, although there for the people, was appointed by the Romans.\u00a0 The temple itself stood as a reminder that God was bigger than Rome or politics.\u00a0 That is the message that I hear when I recall Jesus\u2019 name for the temple:\u00a0 \u201cMy Father\u2019s House.\u201d\u00a0 But that designation got the attention of those in charge.\u00a0 Like good, religious Jews, they want a sign, something tangible, so that they may believe.\u00a0 And Jesus tells them \u201cdestroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.\u201d\u00a0 The Jews focus on the temple and its enormous presence.\u00a0 They focus on the time it has taken to build something so magnificent.\u00a0 The tangible stones are their sign.\u00a0 But Jesus wasn\u2019t talking about the temple.\u00a0 He was talking about himself.\u00a0\u00a0 John tells us that after his resurrection, the disciples remembered Jesus saying this and they believed.\u00a0 The scriptures tell us they shared their belief, and the church was born.\u00a0 And then in 70AD, the temple was destroyed.\u00a0 To this day it is not yet rebuilt.\u00a0 But faith continues to grow and to spread.\u00a0 Despite politics over the centuries trying to hamper Christianity, it has continued to spread and to grow.\u00a0 That is because we put our faith not in a building, but in the empty cross.\u00a0 As Christians who now celebrate the season of Lent, we look to the cross as a follower of Jesus.\u00a0 The gospels portray Jesus in a public act against the religious and political institutions of his time.\u00a0 We have many examples of the saints doing the same, and sometimes it is necessary.\u00a0 Martin Luther and the other reformers stood up for what they believed in and it changed the church for the better.\u00a0 But even today, the Spirit is at work re-forming the church in positive ways for the good of the kingdom.\u00a0 Politics aside, we look at the work of God in the world and see that it is bigger than any building we can build, any institution that claims to be \u201cthe one and only way\u201d, and any political leader that thinks they know best.\u00a0 All that can be destroyed, as history has shown time and time again.\u00a0 But the word of God, the word that Jesus has spoken, has come to us and cannot be destroyed.\u00a0 The Word is forever.\u00a0 In the name of the Father, and the +Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John 2:13-22 | by the Rev. Dr. Judson F Merrell | 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,157,108,110,235,658,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-4564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-judson-f-merrell","category-kapitel-02-chapter-02-johannes","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4566,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4564\/revisions\/4566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4564"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=4564"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=4564"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=4564"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=4564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}