As the
psalmist says this morning “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and redeemer”. Amen.
Given any
number of popular shows on TV, it would seem that most of us enjoy watching an
argument.
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From
paternity tests on weekday TV to the
Sunday morning talk shows, verbal (and sometimes even physical) sparring seems
to rule the airways.
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But
most of us, when the conflict moves from the television to our living room,
quickly become uncomfortable.
When trying
to diminish the intensity of a quarrel, we often find ourselves suggesting that
the issue at hand is “just a misunderstanding”.
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In
saying this we’re attempting to distinguish between bad will, dislike, and hate
on the one hand and a mistake, misinformation, or ignorance on the other.
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According
to this point of view, it’s far more excusable to be wrong than it is to be
hateful.
I think we
all understand the logic of that but I’m just not so sure that it holds up.
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We
human beings are far more complicated than a simple distinction between mind
and heart might indicate.
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Even
if it’s really possible to separate the two, to make the mind less culpable
than the heart is dangerous because it allows us to make excuses for
unacceptable, even evil, behavior done by us or by others.
By now
you’re probably asking yourselves what on earth any of this philosophical speculation
about the motives behind our actions has to do with today’s lessons.
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If
you’ll bear with me, I’d like to suggest that each of our readings is, in its
own way, about misunderstandings rather than ill will.
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A
theology professor of mine used to often say that “Christians have a remarkable
proclivity for missing the point”.
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I
might even go so far as to suggest “missing the point” as the very definition of
sin.
In fact, the
Hebrew word for sin literally means to “miss the mark.”
In the
lesson from Exodus, God gives the commandments to Israel because of a growing
misunderstanding.
Note the
first commandment.
Then God spoke all these words: 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. (Ex 20:1-3)
The
people had obviously become mistaken about who God is, what God had done for
them in the exodus from Egypt, and what was required of them in return.
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All the other commandments that follow are elaborations on
the first.
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In other words, what we understand about God has
consequences far beyond intellectual theology.
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If we fail to understand that God is the source and goal of
all that we have and are, then we cannot love God and neighbor as we ought.
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We might even dare to say that every sin is idolatry, a sin
against the first commandment.
In First
Corinthians there is a misunderstanding about the nature of the cross which,
ultimately, is once again a misunderstanding about who God is and what God is
doing in the world in and through Jesus the Christ.
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To choose human wisdom over divine wisdom is another way of
describing idolatry.
In the
Gospel lesson from John we are shown, once again, a misunderstanding of the
nature of the temple as a house of prayer and, as in First Corinthians, a
misunderstanding about what God is up to in and through Jesus.
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To believe that the business of the temple is business and
not prayer is idolatry.
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To prioritize the temple building over God made flesh in
Jesus, is for John, idolatry.
The
fundamental human condition which Lutheran theology has traditionally referred
to as original sin is, it seems to me, a basic inability to understand who God is
and the subsequent creation and worship of gods of our own choosing – idolatry.
We miss
the point, we misunderstand, we miss the mark.
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When we believe that we will ultimately be made safe by killing,
we pay homage to the false god of death.
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When we believe that we will be made happy by accumulation
of wealth and goods, mistaking want for need, we bow down to the false god of
consumption.
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When we turn to food, drink, drugs, and sex as cures for
loneliness and pain, we have given ourselves over to the false gods of
immediate gratification.
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When we believe ourselves, our culture, our race, our
gender and even our sexuality to be superior to that of others, we have
forsaken the God of the universe for the false gods of home and tribe.
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When we reject the poor, the marginalized, the homeless,
the mentally ill, the public sinner, and all whom Jesus called the least of
these, we reject the Christ who is made present in them for the false gods of
self-righteousness, self-help, and the self-made person.
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And yes, when we insist on erecting monuments to the 10
commandments as a way of marginalizing those who do not share our religious
tradition we turn the commandments themselves, as well as the bible itself,
into a false god.
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The list of these idols and the ways in which we worship
them, of course, goes on and on.
This is
the sad history of our human response to God’s goodness, love and mercy.
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This friends is not really news to any of us.
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It’s the story of Exodus, it’s the story of the buyers and
the sellers in the temple, and it’s the story of the search for wonders and
wisdom rather than the cross.
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We admit as much in the declaration of our sin at the confession
at the beginning of worship week after week.
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God has given the law as gift so that we can see our
failure with clear eyes.
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We are forced to acknowledge that our idolatry has real
life negative consequences for us and for people all over the world.
So where
is the good news this morning?
As the
Presbyterian theologian and popular writer Fredrick Buechner has said, “the
good news is always bad news first” and we have plenty of that.
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But, as Buechner’s statement implies, There is indeed good
news for us today as well.
In a
recent article in The Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminds her
readers that we focus on our sins and their negative consequences during lent as
a first step in recognizing God’s goodness and mercy, not to feel guilty and
even less as a reason to start a program of self-improvement.
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In this holy season we are right to turn our attention to
the misery and, yes, sadly, even the death that is caused by our devotion to
false gods, but to think that we can somehow fix ourselves is just one more
form of idolatry.
The good
news is that God’s gracious redemptive activity in creation does not require
that we get it right.
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We cannot, thank God, misunderstand our way out of God’s
love, grace, and forgiveness.
The idols
lined up on the altars of our hearts are, in the end, no match for the God of
Abraham and Sarah, the God of Moses, the God of our lord and savior Jesus
Christ.
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Just as Jesus cleansed the temple, so Jesus cleanses our
hearts time and time again.
Just as
God raised up the torn down temple of Jesus’ body, so too God brings new life
to those places and people harmed by our idolatry.
Yes, the
whole of sacred scripture contains the story of our human foolishness, our
misunderstandings, our idolatry and sin.
But, dear
friends in Christ, the bible is not ultimately about us – we are but bit
players – rather, the bible is about God, the one true God, a God who time and
time again offers only love, grace, and forgiveness to those who miss the mark.
In
choosing with the Apostle Paul to proclaim Christ crucified, we proclaim the sign
of God’s extravagant grace and the wisdom of a God who is a fool for love of us.
That
extravagant grace and foolish love is indeed good news for us and for our world
on this third Sunday of Lent.
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