March 15, 2015 John 2:13–22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making 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. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

After 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.
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Announcements are a practicality with which every church has to deal. If you have to tell people communication seven times for them to remember, printing it in the bulletin, the newsletter, and the weekly blast, doesn't seem to be enough. Some churches put announcements at the end of worship, as they go out to serve they provide a final reminder. When I came, we moved announcements from the middle of worship toward the front. Other churches omit them all together, with the idea that they feel un-worshipful. I admit, they, and our popcorn Prayer Requests, do seem to sometimes feel a discombobulated hodgepodge in the middle of our liturgy, one congregant once aptly named them, “glorified gossip hour.” This secular feeling is why we wait to light the Christ candle until we’ve gone through the calendar, and its especially why I specifically ask, “Are there any more CHURCH announcements?” Others have said, we could be here all day if each one in the congregation announced their concert, their fundraiser, their sporting game, their charity event.” It is true, as congregants, you are not lacking for outside community involvement; do you remember all the pennants two Pentecost’s ago, about how you served the church, the community, and the world, announcements could take days, “Announcements, announcements, announcements, a terrible death to die, a terrible death to die, a terrible death to be talk to death, a terrible death to die.” I was told that in a small town coming to church was one way to know what was going on in the community, but I wonder if what is going on in the community is always church. I think Jesus, also in frustration, is asking this question.

One could argue that the money changers provide a necessary service for the foreigners who have come for Passover, and as part of that religious festival, the observers needed to buy cattle sheep and doves to make sacrifices. Likewise, one could argue, that our choirs or orchestras are playing Christmas hymns, practice in our building, and include many members of the congregation, and therefore it is a legitimate church announcement, and while this may be true, whenever it happens, I try not to look annoyed, (I am not so much one for turning over tables or cracking a whip, through their was that one day I lost it during over-detailed prayer requests and I did put both my hands on my head in exasperation- not my best day). I think this might have been one of Jesus’ worst because he too has a freak out moment. Jesus is getting rid of announcements entirely, but unlike me, who wonders if community announcements are worshipful, Jesus is wondering if worship is enough in the community. Jesus is questioning the sacrifices of cattle, and sheep, and oxen, and instead he is demanding sacrifices of service to the community. He wants choir concerts that sing to more than the priests, he wants congregants showing up at middle and high school basketball games, he wants us serving food and bidding at preschool fundraisers. Jesus wants to turn over the system of temple worship which is not set up to serve God, but instead to serve thee. For Jesus this is worship, this is sacrifice, the community is the temple.
Jesus is wanting the temple to become the community, for worship to become our service. “Destroy the temple and I will raise it up.”
At the center of such theological statements is the fundamental question of God’s location, which will be confirmed in the dialogue between Jesus and the Jewish authorities.