There was an audible gasp as I set the crèche down in the sanctuary in preparation for Advent.

I had been a pastor a whole four months and the church was getting ready for Advent. I was in the sanctuary with a group ‘hanging the greens.’ The church was small in size but quite beautiful with curved pews and windows depicting Biblical scenes. The chancel area was very limited and that was the problem. I had planned to use a crèche with the children during the weeks leading up to Christmas, but was having difficulty finding a place to display it.

The Lord’s Table is not an option. The ladies suggested I use the pedestal that held the Baptismal Font. I really didn’t think that was an option either.

During my first month there I had discovered the Baptismal Font in a filing cabinet drawer. When I asked about its resting place, it was explained that the church only brought it out when it was needed (and it had been awhile). After some consideration and discussion in which we explored the meaning of the symbols of our faith – Word, Font and Table and importance of maintaining their presence in our worship space to remind of God’s love for us – even if we weren’t ‘using’ it during a particular service we decided to bring the Font back into our sanctuary. One member volunteered to polish it and I located a pedestal and placed the Baptismal Font on it in the front of the sanctuary the following Sunday.

Since I was the one who encouraged the placement of the Font in the Sanctuary I did not want to be the one who then removed it the first time it ‘got in the way.’ Some things are a lot more important than inconvenience. For example, we don’t remove the Lord’s Table from the sanctuary because a couple wants more flower arrangements for their wedding!

So I stood, holding the crèche and taking stock of my surroundings. The chancel was elevated – like here, but the organ console was on the floor and steps to the chancel led right by it in such a way that the top of the console was just a little taller than the platform of chancel. If I set it there, the congregation would be able to see it and it would be handy for me to pick up as I descended the steps for children’s time.

There was an audible gasp as I set the crèche down on the organ console in preparation for Advent. Several voices spoke at once. “I don’t think we should put it there.” I think was said but I know several ladies said, “Mr. Boyd wouldn’t like it.” I picked up the crèche. While whether or not the Baptismal font should be in the sanctuary could be discussed the sanctity of the organ console could not be discussed.

The surprising thing was later while in my office reflecting on the day, I realized I had not met Mr. Boyd. It was a small church and in the four months I had been there I had met everyone. Surely I would have met someone as important as Mr. Boyd. I looked around – he had been a member but had gone on to glory in the early 1960s. He had been dead for more than forty years! I think the crèche did end up on the pedestal that held the Baptismal Font and the Font ended up sitting on the Lord’s Table for Advent.

It is interesting is it not, what we decide is important or imperative. What can be changed about worship and what should never be changed about worship? As followers of Jesus we have been worshipping together for some two thousand years. And there have been some changes in how we do worship. Did you know that for the first thousand years the preacher sat and the congregation stood? I think the congregation decided that the preacher would be shorter if the sermon was delivered standing up and they would be more comfortable sitting down!

However, the question concerning the placement of the crèche was not about what can be changed in worship, it was about who had the authority to make changes.

Soon after our move from seminary to the pastorate, Katherine and me were driving around the town of Sulphur Springs taking in the sights. Seven year old Kat had been uncharacteristically quiet. She seemed to be thinking hard about something and then she turned in the seat. “Mom,” she asked, “Are you the boss of the church?” No, I explained. Jesus is the boss of the church and all of us together serve him. And we make decisions like that - the church chooses elders to work out together what God wants us to do. “So you are the boss of the elders?” No I explained that is still Jesus but I am there to help the elders. So who is the boss? Kat asked again. Jesus. I said again.

Even the memory of Mr. Boyd, dedicated Christian and an Elder, had more authority than a green preacher. And perhaps that is as it should be.

Authority was the issue for the people gathered that today in the Temple. It must have been very confusing that day in the Temple for the priests and the people. Chaotic. I have to say just reading it is uncomfortable. Remember the water into wine - that happened just before this story. What a jarring difference: one story full of grace and life and then in the next sentence Jesus has a whip and is tearing up the temple.

It must have been very confusing that day in the Temple. Folks showing up for to worship and not just any service either – it was Passover. So the Temple was as crowded as we are on a Christmas Eve. I am the choirs had been practicing for months. The property committee had everything in perfect order. The decorations were beautiful. The priests had on their best robes. And then a crazy man starts destroying the Temple.

We are so far removed from that time and the experience of animal sacrifice that we are quick to be on Jesus’ side. Good job Jesus! Get all those smelly, messy animals out of here. But just for a moment put yourself in the place of the worshippers there that day. They were doing what they were supposed to do. They were doing what the Word commanded them to do. They were following the law. Sure, there were folks who came just to be seen or because it was ‘the thing to do’ but always there were folks who truly want to worship and be close to God. In that time and place the Temple was the only place for anyone who wanted to worship God. Temple was the locus of God’s presence. To be in the Temple was to be in the presence of God.

Many, many of those in the Temple that day had come from far away so they would have had to purchase a sacrificial animal there. And they could not use just any money – the Roman and Greek coins had images on them, images associated with other gods so those coins could not be used in the Temple. The sellers of livestock and the moneychangers made their worship possible. The other gospels mention the corruption of the system, I am sure you can imagine how such a system could be abused, but in this gospel corruption is that the issue raised. The issue is authority.

Jesus just swept in and changed all of the rules. Had he grown up in the Temple? Where had he gone to seminary? Was he a Levi? Was he a pillar in the church or in the community? Was he a generous contributor? What credentials could possibly give Jesus the authority to order how worship should take place in the Temple? There is no earthly authority that would give one the right to negate the laws of Moses.

Of course, that is the point. Jesus, as John put it is “the Word made flesh.” Jesus is the One was with God from the beginning and was God. Jesus is the-walking-around-in-the-world-Temple. The priests and the people were doing what the Word commanded. But the Word itself incarnate was walking around in the Temple that day.

Imagine, the people that day had shown up to worship God. To be in the place where the presence of God was. And the presence of God was walking around in a man named Jesus. But, they didn’t notice it over the noise of the animals and the business of changing money.

In the first chapter of John, we read that Jesus ‘came to what was his own and his own did not accept him.’ Is there any place that is more his own than the Temple? And does any other holy day celebrate the power and presence of God for his people more than Passover?

What would that be like? - The President’s presence at Congress for the State of the Union address going unnoticed? The winner of an academy award being unrecognized at the Oscars even has she is announced? Or perhaps it is like coming home only to find your family has moved and they don’t seem to know who you are.

It is almost unbelievable, but God incarnate came and regular order of the day did not even hiccup. But isn’t that always the danger - that we might be here in a house of worship and miss the presence of the One to whom it is dedicated?

We come to worship and many things can prevent us from fully participating in the abundant life God has for us in Jesus. We think about the pot roast in the slow cooker at home - did I put in enough water? Did I turn it on? We sigh wishing we were singing more praise songs today or we sigh wishing we were singing no praise songs. We are distracted by the attire of teen or the perfume of his mother. We think the property committee should fix the eye sore noticed on the way in or we wonder why another committee is doing this instead of that. We follow the bulletin and forget its only function is to point to Jesus.

We come to worship Sometimes to be seen. Sometimes because it is just what we do. Sometimes we come with heart ache desperately hoping that the good news is really good and that God will meet us here.

The good news really is good news. Jesus is here. And Jesus will let nothing get between himself and you. Not our traditions. Not our preferences. Not our understanding or lack of understanding. Not our problems. Not our assumptions. Not even our worship. That is why the wine of new life is possible. But don’t be surprised when turns over some of the tables in our lives or cracks a whip at the smelly, messy things in our lives.

Jesus is here with the power to bring new life to our lives - to make wine out of ordinary water. And Jesus is here with the authority to make it so.

Amen.

Copyright © 2006 Karen S. Pollan, all rights reserved.
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