We are the open doors: March 3, 2024

 Year B, Lent 3                         John 2:13-22                                                         

          When I walked into this church for the first time, it took my breath away. It was a beautiful day and the sun was streaming through the windows lighting up everything within. It glowed. My last church was lovely and sacred, but it was dark. Most churches are because so many are made of dark wood and gray stones.  They are adorned with stained glass windows that allow very little light in.  But Christ Church is bright and warm.  When I saw those glass doors, it felt welcoming, like a church that was perpetually open.  Of course it’s not just the light that makes this church beautiful. It’s the Palladian window, the fluted columns and of course, the wineglass pulpit.  The building draws many people in. I had never met so many architects until I became the rector of Christ Church.  Now they are everywhere! All that said, the most beautiful part of this church is the people within.

            There is nothing wrong with having pride in one’s church. This church took over 20 years to be built in the 1700s and has required years and years of work since.  Churches and places of worship of this scale take time to build. It’s not surprising to hear that the temple in Jerusalem took over 46 years to build and when this gospel reading took place, it wasn’t even finished.  It’s understandable that the religious authorities had a lot of pride in the temple. 

Jesus wasn’t a fan of religious pride, or really any kind of pride. This Gospel story is one that surprises people.  It does not fit into the image that people have of Jesus.  People picture Jesus with a lamb over his shoulders and children on his lap.  They imagine him teaching and healing.  They don’t usually picture him with a whip driving animals and people out of a temple while overturning tables.  This is not the peace loving Jesus who we imagine in our heads.  Yet it was clearly an important event in the life of Jesus because all four Gospel writers recorded it. 

What was it that got Jesus all riled up?  There are a lot of theories about that.  Since he said, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” some people have assumed that he was angry about the fact that people were selling animals in the temple.  This is possible but unlikely.  Selling animals was a necessary part of the temple system.  People were supposed to make sacrifices and most people did not travel with sacrificial animals.  So it made sense to sell the animals at the temple.

Others have said that Jesus was not upset that these animals were being sold, but that they were being sold at an unfair price.  The sellers were taking advantage of people and profiting from these sacrifices that were meant for God alone.   This makes more sense in light of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  In those three Gospels, Jesus tells the people that they have made his father’s house a den of robbers.  But he does not say that in John’s Gospel.  He just tells them to stop making his father’s house a marketplace. 

           I wonder if what he really meant was that they were making the temple a market place for God.  It was as if they were implying that they had exclusive rights to God…that people could only be in God’s presence when they were in the temple.  This was especially a concern in a time when there were many people who were ostracized from the temple.  Not just anyone could go in the temple, which meant that God’s love was limited. Jesus knew that this was not the case.  He knew that God was everywhere, present at all times.  Jesus also knew that his life, death, and resurrection would transform how and where people perceived God.   He wanted to introduce that change now while he was still living. 

          The people who had the power in the temple were angry that Jesus thought he had any right to call this holy temple his father’s house.  So they asked him for a sign…presumably a sign of his power.  His response was even more troublesome.  He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  They were astounded. The temple that he was standing in had already been under construction for 46 years and it wasn’t even finished yet.  And this carpenter was going to destroy it and build a new one in 3 days?  But Jesus was not talking about a temple made of bricks and mortar.  He was talking about his body.  His body was where God dwelled.  And his body would be destroyed in the crucifixion, but in three days in would be resurrected.

Jesus was not saying that God was not present in the temple anymore.  I want to be very clear on that.  He was at the temple to worship. Jesus regularly went to temple because he was a devout Jew. He was saying that God was not limited to the temple and no human institution has control over God’s presence.  No person or religious body can say that some people have access to God and some people don’t.   That is what got Jesus all riled up.  People weren’t just trying to control money and power; they were trying to control God.  They were trying to limit who had access to God.

          It would be easy to read this and feel a little superior. We don’t restrict who comes in our church. We welcome everyone.  Right?  And we do, but there are small ways that we limit access to our church.  For instance, you have to be literate to follow our leaflet.  If you are not very familiar with the English language, you probably won’t be comfortable in most Episcopal Churches.  While past church experience is by no means required, it’s helpful to understand the basics before participating in our worship, so you don’t get too confused.  These things aren’t unique to Christ Church. Almost every Episcopal Church has these same barriers to entry.   We can do small things to make ourselves more open and welcoming, but the Episcopal Church is structured in a way that makes it impossible for us to judge other churches/places of worship we perceive as less than hospitable.

The other barrier to entry is the perception of organized religion.  While our building seems an asset to many, others might find it intimidating, especially if they have negative associations with church.  I can’t tell you how many people have told me over the years that they are afraid if they walk into a church, lightning will strike.  One person told me he was only coming back to church in a casket and that turned out to be true.  Does this mean we should abandon these beautiful buildings that were built for the purpose of worshipping God? Of course not. But it does mean that we have to find other ways to connect with people who might never come into our building. 

I know that one of the reasons that we have these glass doors is so that we can demonstrate authentic welcome on Sunday mornings.  The first time I saw those glass doors on a Sunday morning, I felt that. But given the way our world now views religion, we need more than open doors and open windows.  For many unchurched people, it’s not the structure that will welcome them, it’s us, the people of God and the people of the church that are the open doors and open windows.  We are the connection between the church and the community.  We can be those points of connection by sharing our faith, a faith that emphasizes the abundant love and grace of Jesus Christ.

How do we do this? For one, we can be better about talking about our faith…not to convert them, just so people can see that Christians are good and loving people.  We can’t keep letting the loudest Christians have the monopoly on people’s perception of the Christian faith.  We are people they know and like.  We are more than what they see and hear on the news. We can invite them to events outside of Sunday morning worship that might be less intimidating, which means we need more of those events.  We can emphasize outreach and fellowship, or bring our worship into our beautiful garden because for some reason that is less intimidating to others. 

I will never cease to love this building and what it represents, but we can’t let the building confine our God. God’s love is way too big for that. We, the members of Christ Church are the vessels of Gods overflowing love.  Not only that, but we too are temples of the Holy Spirit.  God dwells in us and there is no wall that can confine the Spirit that dwells in us.