Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Third Sunday of Lent, Year B

Passionate Living

Readings: Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-22

We are part of a broken world. How evident that is as we read in the newspaper about war and conflict. Just to name a few of the terrible situations faced by people in our world, there is Darfur which has seen some 350,000 people killed and another 1.8 million displaced. There is the Civil War in Sri Lanka. There is the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. There is the situation in Gaza. Peace and diplomacy so often fail to resolve conflict. What is the Christian way to view what is happening? How can God’s word speak to us in the midst of turmoil?

The Ten Commandments, God's covenant with Israel, speak to us at every level of human experience. They speak to us as individuals, as community, and as nation. They are moral guides to our growth as people who live in communion with one another and all of creation. They cover all aspects of life. They are summarized for the Christian in Jesus’ call to us to love God, and to love neighbour.

If we take the Ten Commandments seriously – and I certainly trust we do – we must surely be asking ourselves some difficult questions about the way we live our lives. What gods do we put before God? Where do we put all of our energies? In placing our energies, do we leave time for God? Are there any discrepancies between what we profess as Christians and how we act towards others? How do we keep Sunday holy when society demands that we work? What injustices do we see going on around us? Are we willing to speak out against them? Are we willing to do something about them? In this consumer society of ours, which causes us to covet from cradle to grave, do we stand up to the desires of the world and put God and neighbour before our own needs? The command to love God and love neighbour makes us responsible for the world in which we live. We are responsible to help those who live in poverty. It is our responsibility to care for the sick, to live in peace, to live out our ministry as servants in a broken world.

This is a time for passionate living. The symbol for this third Sunday in our Lenten series is fire. It gives light and heat. It can create atmosphere in a room. It purifies and refines. It can also destroy. The bush fires this year in Australia which destroyed animal habitat, people’s homes and even their lives are a testimony to that. Fire describes anger and revenge. It also describes love and devotion. For us during this Lenten season, fire is a symbol of the burning away of the old self. The mystery of fire brought the Hebrews to associate God’s presence with fire. Moses first encounter with God was through a burning bush. The people of Israel were led through the wilderness by a “pillar of fire”. As Christians it symbolizes the Spirit of God among us. At Pentecost, the Spirit descended as tongues of fire on the people of God. Fire symbolizes the Spirit of God among us. It is a sign of conversion, a symbol of the burning away of the old self. Conversion experiences test us. Something is burned off; what remains is stronger, purer. It allows us to live passionately. The Spirit is a fire that purifies, creates, refines, destroys and transforms if we let it. It allows us to live passionately.

And so in the Gospel today we see a Jesus who lives passionately. And yes, I admit it. I feel uncomfortable about his anger. That is because I can’t quite understand it. What was his objection? What was he thinking? It was business as usual, a normal day in a busy synagogue at a busy time of the year. Animals and birds were supplied for sacrifice. Foreign currencies had to be exchanged for the temple currency. The very anger of Jesus in doing what he did! It was a deliberate and passionate act of protest. Was he protesting against the power and exploitation of the religious order of the day? That is certainly what it seems to me to be. He seems to be challenging the status quo. And it is bound to get him into trouble.

Jesus’ anger is a stumbling block to me in the same way that the cross was a stumbling block for the Jew. It seems foolish. However, what foolishness it is to buy into the nonsense that Jesus the son of a carpenter turned preacher could do any good! Yet that is exactly what I believe as a Christian. What foolishness it is to believe that a God of love reigns over this fractured violence-ridden world of ours; but I cannot help but see the hand of God in this world. What foolishness to believe that God can bring peace where there is enmity! Yet I believe it all passionately. I believe passionately that God can bring about peace. I believe passionately that my fervent prayers along with yours can bring wholeness to our fractured world. I believe that God can change our hardened hearts and help us to live as brothers and sisters.

Fortunately throughout history there have been people passionate enough about the Christian faith to challenge the systems of the Church and the world. It has been said that if Jesus taught us anything it was how to die, not how to kill! Martin Luther King Jr. put it in the following way. "To our most bitter opponents we say: 'we shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We shall appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.'"

Oscar Romero, the Bishop of El Salvador became bishop because it was thought that he would not challenge the status quo. He had a conversion experience and because of it became a passionate advocate for the poor and underprivileged people of his country. He challenged both the state and his own church. In a sermon preached shortly before being gunned down in his church he said, "They may kill me, but I shall rise up in the people of San Salvador."

So how do we let the Spirit move us? Are we passionate enough to challenge the systems that exist in the Church? Are we passionate enough to change the injustices in the world? Do we believe that it matters? Do we believe that we can make a difference? Are we willing to work for justice for those who live in poverty? For the homeless and under housed? For those with mental illnesses?

Because it begins with changing ourselves and we know how difficult that is! We cannot hope to change the Church or the world if we are not willing to make changes within ourselves. We must allow the Spirit of God to work in our lives. That means not only being passionate, but being forgiving. It means accepting God’s forgiveness for the wrongs we have done and allowing ourselves to offer it to others.

The Gospel of repentance and conversion is proclaimed in the Eucharist and in the Sacrament of reconciliation. Sunday by Sunday we are called to renewed faith in God. We are called to be a reconciled community of faith. As we pass the peace after the absolution we accept God’s forgiveness. We reach out our hands to others in peace and in love. It is a response that deepens our faith. It is a renewing of our baptismal covenant. It is a new beginning. Let us passionately embrace God’s forgiveness and allow it to change our hearts. Let us carry it with us into the world. Amen.

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