My sixth Lent blog - overturning the tables

I’m writing this on Saturday night waiting for dinner at the Ship on Holy Island. We are having it as a takeaway as it’s a wild night here and not sensible to be out. It was sunny earlier! The weather here is unpredictable. This week in 2018 we were here for the beast from the east. Never to be forgotten. 

So as I’m waiting for seabass, ginger and lime fish cakes with chips and salad I’m pondering tomorrow’s lectionary even though I’m not leading worship. I expect we shall hear the passages in the service here at St Mary’s Church.

Last week in worship I did a service on laughter and I used a picture of the laughing Jesus. This Sunday the Gospel of John has a very different picture of Jesus - a Jesus who gets angry. Are we comfortable with that? Jesus is the gentle Jesus meek and mild we sang about in Sunday School, he reacts where things are just wrong. Especially where there is injustice or people are blocking the way to God.

The Gospel passage for the third Sunday of Lent is John 2: 13 - 22. Jesus overturning the tables in the Temple. The first thing worth noticing is that this episode occurs in a different location from the other gospels. For Matthew, Mark and Luke this incident takes place near the start of Holy Week, just after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, whereas for John it comes near the beginning of the Gospel, straight after the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Like that event, it marks a turning of the tables, of the ushering in of a way to relate to God which takes us beyond traditional laws, customs and frameworks.

A big difference between John's account and that of the synoptic writers is less obvious but, nonetheless, significant. Whereas their focus is on how the Temple has been turned into a "den of robbers" John's concern is more nuanced: "He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!'" 

John is less concerned about the illegality, or otherwise, of what is happening in the Temple courtyards and more about how what has developed as regulation and law now obscures the Temple's foundational purpose – to be a place of encounter with God. For John, it is not simply the sheep, cattle, doves and money changers who are being driven out, but the capacity to relate to God.

Yesterday I was at a world day of prayer service in the cathedral. The service this year was prepared several years ago by the Christian women of Palestine. Some of the testimonies and prayers were very powerful. Then a Facebook friend who used to be in my circuit in Bexhill shared these words: Ian Pruden the whole thing moved me to tears. Can’t help but wonder how many of the women involved in preparing this year’s service, are still alive. Doesn’t what is going on in Gaza make you angry? Unnecessary loss of life. Then there’s what’s happening in our country at the moment. We seem to be whipping up racism and extremism. We seem to be so unhappy we will blame everyone but us for the mess. How on earth is George Galloway back as an MP? What was that statement in Downing Street by the Prime Minister all about? Then there’s America. Can we really be considering reelecting Donald Trump? Doesn’t that make you angry? 

Then there’s what occurred in parliament last week. Ian Black who is Dean of Newport Cathedral preached this at Evensong last Sunday: I don’t know about you, but I watched the news of the events in the Westminster Parliament on Wednesday this week, around what was supposed to be a debate on Britain’s position to bring lasting peace to Gaza, with a mix of bemusement and disgust. Struggling to make sense of the political manoeuvring and party game-playing, I was grateful to Hannah White, from the Institute for Government, for a blog post to help make sense of it all. Traps for one party, risks for another, inadequate and outdated procedures, pride and power mixing. Meanwhile, thousands are dying in a violent and ruthless war. Parliament did not have a good day. Hannah White wrote in her blog post:

“Political game-playing over parliamentary procedure is unedifying at the best of times, but for parliamentarians to behave in this way during a debate about a conflict in which tens of thousands are dying has undoubtedly brought Parliament into disrepute.”

It was a sharp rebuke and I was left thinking that the procedures are not the only thing that needs updating, we need a reboot and that will only come with a General Election.”

Is anger in spirituality justified? We need as Jesus hints to not hinder access for all to the holy space. We have chairs in my largest church now which means the space can be more flexible but there is a danger to make money we hire it out to the wrong sort of people.

But maybe Jesus in John’s Gospel is more angry about things blocking access to God himself. So it’s right to get angry about man made rules in church which are now just ridiculous or out of touch ritual which excludes some and hinders mission. It’s right to get angry about the injustice in the world we see every day. If people of faith don’t try and overturn rubbish then who will? Then we live a different way. Jesus is the new temple rebuilt in three days. There’s a powerful Franciscan benediction which invites God to bless us with anger. Not violence, not aggression, not abuse or wrong power but anger that says “this just cannot be.” What do you think? Are we “inspired by love and anger”? 

Maybe. For now though, dinner awaits.