March 3, 2024

Lent 3 Year B

Epiphany, Winnipeg

Exodus 20:1-17

John 2:13-22

So it’s Annual Meeting Sunday. I think that for the first two years that I was here the announcement on the Sunday a week before the annual meeting went something like this: “Next week is our Annual General Meeting, so after an abbreviated service we will stay in here for the meeting and then go downstairs for lunch.” The third year that I was here whoever made the announcement had given up on the “abbreviated service” part, so they just said, “After worship we’ll have the meeting and then lunch.”

In the spirit of those first two years, then, I will in fact try to be abbreviated today.

We’ll start with the Ten Commandments, which does not sound like a promising start to an abbreviated anything, but here’s what we need to know: All of these “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots” do not mean “Do this or else,” or “If you do this then you get to belong.” They’re more like household rules you might post on the fridge – no hitting, ask before you take the last cookie, put the toilet seat down. Words that say, “Well, here we are: we live in this place, we’ve got to get along, here’s what needs to happen – or not happen – for us to live together.”

These Ten Commandments are words from God where God says, “OK people, I set you free from slavery, and this is how you make sure you never become slaves to anyone or to each other. And I’ve got this relationship with you that I’m committed to, so this is how we can make sure we get along, and this is how you can make sure you get along. We’re in this relationship and this household together, and this is how we’ll commit to living together.” The Ten Commandments are all about community.

Something to keep in mind for an AGM: Out of great love God has called us together, and God’s deepest desire is that we beloveds live together in a healthy way. It’s all about community.

And then this. This is a really cool hoody that Val thought she’d like for Christmas, so…she got one. It’s from an indigenous-owned business, and it reflects a teaching that you should always act in a way that considers what’s best for the people seven generations from now.

You might have noticed that the fourth commandment goes like this: “Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land that God is giving you.” It sounds like that seven generations ahead thing, doesn’t it? We might add, “Oh, and by the way, honour the kids too, and honour those in authority, and those in authority honour the ones you serve, and all of you honour each other.” It’s not always easy to figure out how that plays out, but it all has to do with how we treat each other and have a good and long life together. Seven generations….something else to think about on AGM Sunday.

And then there’s Jesus, coming into the temple and making a fuss like he does, with a whip and an attitude and some choice words that will raise an eyebrow or two. He’s not starting a new religion or getting rid of whatever’s gone before, but he’s saying this: Our life and our faith is not a transaction or a deal or an accounting system.

Jesus came into the temple and found people selling cattle and sheep, and we need to know that they weren’t just there to make a buck. They were providing the things for people needed in order to offer a sacrifice in the temple. It’s just what faithful people sought to do. Cattle or sheep need to be bought for the sacrifice, or a couple of doves can be purchased by anyone who can’t afford livestock. So there are also money changers there, first century ATMS for anyone who has travelled from far away to make a sacrifice, but who only has foreign currency.

Then Jesus comes along and clears all that out, as if to say that life is not a system, faith is not a purchase, and God is not confined to a building or a place. The new thing we hear in Jesus is that God comes as a gift in the flesh, as a person who we will see make wine for a wedding; a person who makes people see and hear and who listens to those who have not been heard and sees those who have not been seen; a person who weeps at the death of a friend and who raises the dead, a person who eats with their friends and soothes their aching feet, a person who dies and who is raised up from death. That’s where God is found.

And although Jesus wasn’t planning for or participating in an AGM (that looks like an AGM from the good old days), he reminds us of something for our meeting today. We know it, but it never hurts to remember: It's Jesus who is at the centre of our life. And Jesus makes us into a community.

When Jesus does all those things – the water into wine, the feeding and washing feet, raising the dead, giving the gift of peace – he gives us a glimpse of who we are together: We are a community, not a temple but people, who are made one as Jesus is one with us. So what Jesus offers us we offer to one another and to the world: Abundant life. Not getting rich and having comfort, but abundant life where people care for each other, and are seen and heard; where people share the gift of life that they have been given. That we have been given.

Seven generations ahead…. We might have seven generations of AGMS yet to come. Probably not. We might only have one more AGM. But probably a lot more than that. However all that pans out, we live every day with the promise that the love of God will last long beyond seven generations, and long beyond the thousandth generation – that’s there in the Ten Commandments too - which is just a neat way of saying forever.

It's what we prepare to celebrate outside an empty tomb in a few weeks. It’s what binds us together today. It’s a gift for all the generations to come, a gift that that gives life for all our days to come.