The Third Sunday in Lent

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
March 11, 2012

3 Lent B

Several years ago now, when our son Slocomb was looking at colleges, he and I made a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina to see Davidson College. In addition to Davidson’s many fine academic programs, there were two other stand out features for Slocomb. One was the fact that laundry service is provided as part of room and board. Can’t beat that when looking for a college! The other feature of note was the honor code that every student was required to sign. The Davidson College honor code says, in part: "Every student shall be honor bound to refrain from cheating (including plagiarism). Every student shall be honor bound to refrain from stealing. Every student shall be honor bound to refrain from lying about college business. Every student shall be honor bound to report immediately all violations of the Honor Code of which the student has first-hand knowledge; failure to do so shall be a violation of the Honor Code."

While the Honor Code sounds like a lot of rules designed to keep college students in line, and while there are little signs posted all over campus to remind people of what constitutes an infraction of the honor code, such as taking books from the library without checking them out, or taking an extra packet of ketchup from the dining hall without paying for it, the result of the Honor Code is actually a community in which people experience great freedom. The students are trusted. The community is safe. People can be who they are without fear of ridicule. Students can do their best knowing that no one will get ahead by cheating. The atmosphere is friendly and people are genuinely concerned for one another. A particular kind of community is created when people covenant with each other to live by a certain code of behavior.In the reading from Exodus, we hear about a different honor code when we hear God say "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me." Earlier in the book of Exodus, we are told that while the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt, they were forced to work until their lives were bitter, that Moses could not know his own mother except through her cunning and deceit, and that Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. The 10 commandments were not what ordered their lives in Egypt. God gives the Israelites the 10 commandments once the people are out of Egypt, not as another form of bondage, but to order their lives in freedom. The Israelites are now free to worship no other God. They are free to worship no idol, to keep holy the Sabbath, to honor their parents, and to live as a community where people do not kill, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor covet nor bear false witness. In the Psalm this morning, we hear those commandments described as reviving the soul, as more to be desired than gold, and sweeter than honey. The commandments are certainly described by the psalmist as a gift and not as burden or a new form of bondage.

So, what happens in the Temple this morning when Jesus takes a whip and drives the money changers away? I believe that the money changers in the Temple thought they were doing what the Scriptures command. Based on the Hebrew Scriptures and their understanding of the Law, the Jewish people of the first century had a complicated system of sacrifices that they were to make at the Temple. Sacrifices were made as a means of worshiping God, giving thanks to God, or to ask God’s forgiveness for a wrongdoing. Faithful people came for miles to worship at the Temple and offer their sacrifices as required by the Scriptures. In order for those sacrifices to be worthy of sacrifice to God, they could not be carried for miles on dusty roads, in the heat, before being offered. So, appropriate animals were sold at the Temple so that people could buy them when they arrived. The only problem with purchasing animals at the Temple is that the coins of the secular realm had the image of the emperor on them and could not be used in the Temple, which was the realm of God. So, the secular coins had to be exchanged for Temple currency, hence the money changers. And, since we all have to make a living, there was a certain mark-up, both for the animals and the currency exchange. But the intent was to make it possible for worshipers to offer their sacrifices at the altar of God, as the law of God required. But according to the story, Jesus was not impressed.

Jesus’ concern was that the law had been given to the people as a way of living in freedom and now that same law had become a new form of bondage. The people had become slaves to a system that created financial hardship for some, and financial gain for others. One person’s challenge to make acceptable sacrifices to God had become another person’s opportunity for profit. The faith that was once based in the gift of freedom from slavery was now rooted in a system that once again enslaved God’s people.

During Lent, Jesus barges into our own lives as individuals and our life together as a community of faith to challenge us to live as people who have been set free. The psalmist’s response to the giving of the Commandments was deep and profound gratitude for all that God had done for the Hebrew people. Profound gratitude may seem like an odd response to Lent as we give up certain practices or take on new disciplines, but freedom and gratitude require a discipline of their own. This morning, Jesus challenges us to live as a community of faith that is deeply rooted in that freedom and gratitude. God gave the Hebrew people the gift of 10 commandments to create a community that could live together in freedom. Jesus chased the money changers out of the temple because they had distorted the freedom God had won for them. In Lent, and always, Jesus calls us to live as people who understand that our freedom in Christ is more to be desired than gold, and sweeter than honey. If all of our actions, both as individuals and as a community, are ordered by the gratitude of people who understand that we have been set free, we will more fully be a community that loves God with all our hearts and loves our neighbor as ourselves.

Amen.