More Desirable than Gold

John 2:13-22; Psalm 19; I Corinthians 1:18-25

Lent 3

I Corinthians 1:18-25

¹⁸ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Psalm 19:1-14

¹ The heavens are telling the glory of God;

and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

² Day to day pours forth speech,

and night to night declares knowledge.

³ There is no speech, nor are there words;

their voice is not heard;

⁴ yet their voice goes out through all the earth,

and their words to the end of the world.

In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, ⁵which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,

and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

⁶ Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them;

and nothing is hid from its heat.

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;

the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple;

⁸ the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes;

⁹ the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever;

the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;

sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

¹¹ Moreover by them is your servant warned;

in keeping them there is great reward.

¹² But who can detect their errors?

Clear me from hidden faults.

¹³ Keep back your servant also from the insolent;

do not let them have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.

¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable to you, O Lord , my rock and my redeemer.

John 2:13-22

¹³ The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

The Sermon

Well now we know the answer to the question: what does it take to finally get Jesus’ goat?

He remains the Prince of Peace through betrayals, disappointments, disciples who won’t listen, crowds who won’t listen—even his own mother, just a couple verses earlier, wouldn’t listen to him.

I love, actually, how John gives us this transcendent image of Jesus all the time—“ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes…” But just before going up to Jerusalem and driving the sellers out of the Temple, his first sign was turning water into wine, and the only reason that happened was because his own mother ignored him. She said, “They don’t have any wine.”

And he said—transcendent; you can just hear the angels singing in the background, and see him in soft focus—“My hour has not yet come.”

And she completely ignored Transcendence-Boy and said to the waiters, “Do what he tells you,” as in, “This is going to be pretty neat,” and now Jesus kind of has to come back down to earth and just do what Mom told him to do.

But let’s not be fooled into thinking that Jesus must have been feeling rubbed the wrong way, or already in a bad mood, when he got to the Temple, and that was just the thing that set him off. What he saw going on when he got to the Temple was enough, by itself, to set the stage for his reaction.

He found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables, just like the currency exchange at the airport: they’re not there just to provide a service out of the kindness of their hearts; they’re there to make money. And they do.

Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle.

He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

And he told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”

You don’t do religious observance for profit. You do it to worship and honor God.

The money changers and the people selling had forgotten that the ordinances of the Lord are more to be desired than gold. What they were doing would be like if, on the way into worship on a communion Sunday, you had to buy your bread and wine, at a profit to the seller, before you came in.

So now we know what it takes to get under Jesus’ skin, to get him just one step beyond visibly upset.

Like, upset enough to start turning furniture upside down—maybe to start turning you and me, and our so often inauthentic, self-centered pseudo-faithfulness upside down too.

The law of the Lord,

the decrees of the Lord,

the precepts of the Lord,

the commandment of the Lord,

the fear of the Lord,

the ordinances of the Lord —

They are perfect, they are sure, they are right;

they are clear, and pure;

they are true and righteous altogether.

They revive the soul;

They make simple people wise;

They rejoice the heart;

They enlighten the eyes;

They endure forever;

they are more to be desired than gold, even much fine gold;

They are sweeter than honey, the drippings of the honeycomb.

They are perfect.

There is a lot of misunderstanding of the word “perfect.” Whole volumes have been written by smarter preachers and better educators than I, trying to explain away that stumbling block of a verse in Matthew, when Jesus tells his followers, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

And we’re supposed to go, “Well, nobody’s perfect...I mean, I’m only human, so…I mean, I’m all right, right?”

—Because the word “perfect” has come to seem to mean, “flawless,” and we can’t really be flawless.

But the original meaning of the word “perfect” is complete—fully mature; completely formed into what it is supposed to be. A tadpole is an incomplete frog, and you and I, until we have fully become the people that God created us to be, are not yet complete, not yet whole, not yet fully matured into what we were designed to be.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” It is now what it was meant to be.

So why do we keep going to war over it—sometimes figuratively, like in the ongoing theological conversations in the Presbyterian Church and others; and sometimes all too literally, as when whole nations have taken up arms against others, and slaughtered civilians, all under the banner of various ideas about what they think is the law of God.

God’s law is perfect , but our apprehension of it is far from it. Our understanding of God’s law, our command of the meaning and the ramifications of God’s law of perfect, holy love—mercy and kindness and justice, humility and faithfulness—is imperfect in every sense.

Maybe that makes it all the harder for us to face it, in all its demands.

What do you mean, love God with all my heart, all my strength—I’ve got concerns to look after; I’ve got profits to make.

Plus, I’ve got all these little pet hatreds I wanted to keep nurturing. What do you mean, love my neighbor as I love myself? What do you mean, pray for my enemies?

Sometimes it doesn’t matter if something comes to us perfect, fully formed, complete: we have to tweak it a little, particularly if, as it is, it demands more of us than we really want.

How many relationships are burdened by at least one partner looking at the other, in one breath saying, “I love you just the way you are,” and in the next breath, “if only I could get you to be different—more like what I want you to be”?

And how often do we treat God’s call on our lives the same way?

“Hey, Wow, God, this is really great; I mean, this really is Good News. I’ll follow you anywhere, O Lord, any time…as soon as I’m done with soccer. As soon as I make my first million. As soon as I get some rest.

“I’ll be there just as soon as I can get it—your gospel—to fit into what I want to do for myself, and my family. And my school. And my job. And my leisure time. After I take care of all that, I’m yours.”

We have a tough time handling “perfect.”

Again with the interpersonal analogy: if someone else is fully complete just the way they are—if you come to me not needing me to complete you—that takes away any false power over you that I might have thought I had. If I thought you would find me indispensable, because only by knowing me, being advised by me, would you finally have a road map to becoming a complete person—well, if you don’t need me for that, then I have to see you as your own person.

No part of you can belong only to me, and I have no false power over you.

And if God’s word—the decrees, the precepts , the commandments—if that comes to us already fully formed, that means we don’t get to tweak it to suit our own lives, our own conveniences.

Just the opposite. It means that a faithful person, in humility, will reshape his or her life to conform to God’s law: to love the Lord with all your heart, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

To do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

To take up your cross, and follow.

To love one another, just as Christ has loved you.

Maybe what we really want is something other than perfection. Maybe the problem with our faithfulness to God’s word is that it isn’t really what we thought we wanted.

We wanted the part about lying down in green pastures, but we’d just as soon do without the part about dying with Christ so that we may be raised to new life with him.

And THIS is what proved to be just about enough for the Prince of Peace.

He got to the Temple, and found that even in the holiest place in the holy land, the ordinances of the Lord, true and righteous altogether, were not more desired than gold. The desire for gold was winning out—even in the Temple of God.

But for the believer there is a different bottom line.

The bottom line for the believer is: God is worth living for. And “living for” means as much as it sounds like it means: namely, everything.

For us, it’s not primarily about the accumulation of money, or power, or anything else that serves us before serving God.

In everything we do, say, and represent; everything we stand for, everything we fight for, everything we live for, we proclaim Christ crucified.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.