April 16,2008

Taking Back the House of Prayer

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Matthew 21:1-13

Opening Illustration – Jim Dick’s children’s sermon – money flying everywhere. Irony.

Passage about civil disobedience. Church has often helped to maintain status quo.

Picture of Jesus’ ministry in the Bible is very different. Jesus broke God-given laws, then challenged people by saying that following God’s laws was no longer the way to relate to God.

Instead, people were now supposed to believe in him and following his teachings. Sometimes when people did that, they ended up breaking civil laws and getting in trouble.

Story we remember on Palm Sunday is one of those situations.

Tell the Story of the Entrance.

Story appears in all gospels. Slightly different in each. Point of the story in Matthew is that the people welcomed Jesus as someone who had come to save them from their oppressors.

Story of Jesus driving out money changers and pigeon sellers – temple leaders were exploiting people who came to make offerings.

Focus on how Jesus responds to injustice. Church is responsible for drawing attention to injustice in society and working to resolve it.

We can model our response to injustice after Jesus’ example in this story.

First – Jesus’ sense of justice was rooted in his conviction that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.

Exploitation by leaders at the temple reveals a disdain for the common people.

When we participate in injustice or allow it to continue, we’re really saying we don’t think highly enough of the people who are suffering to work for change. If we were on the other end of it, we would think others should help us.

Jesus believed that every person had an intrinsic goodness and dignity that reflected the God who created them.

We should help end the exploitation of others because when we do we dishonor God’s own goodness in other people.