OPENING WORDS

The voice of truth is an eternal message from age to age
with a vigor that cannot be stilled.
Jesus was silenced but his message cannot die.
This Easter morning,
let us celebrate the victory of his words over death.
Let us hear his voice this morning
and honor the memory of one great teacher
in a long line of courageous prophets
speaking truth to power.
Let us rejoice in the transforming power of love
personified in Jesus which lives also in our hearts.

SPOKEN MEDITATION Disciple's Prayer

Come, let us rejoice and be glad.
Death has been robbed of its victory.
Only a few days ago,
the dream of the Kingdom of God was crucified.
The promise of a new order in this oppressed land disappeared.
With the stroke of a hammer and the glint of a sword
a man who spoke with his own authority was silenced.
His arrest scattered us like sheep before the wolf.

And now, alleluia!
In the midst of our despair, his tomb is empty!
Could he walk amongst us again?
Will he again open the door for us, as he has done in the past,
to see that we are bigger than we ever imagined?

See him or not, now we know his spirit is still with us.
His ministry is not finished but is now ready to begin.
His loving spirit ripples the pond all the way out to the sea.
His promise is as strong as it ever was.

So let us rejoice and be glad
Faith, Hope and Love have returned to life once again.

READINGS

So they came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began driving out those who bought and sold in the temple. He upset the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dealers in pigeons; and he would not allow anyone to use the temple court as a thoroughfare for carrying goods. Then he began to teach them and said, `Does not Scripture say, "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations"? But you have made it a robbers' cave.' The chief priests and the doctors of the law heard of this and sought some means of making away with him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came he went out of the city.

I will yet bring home all that remain to be brought in.

SERMON

I've been reading Robert Funk's book Honest to Jesus this week seeking a better understanding of what really happened almost 2000 years ago after the crucifixion of a fairly obscure Hebrew prophet to the historians of the time. I say almost unknown because besides the Greek texts Mark, Matthew, Luke and John there is precious little corroborating evidence of Jesus' life and death in the historical records. I heard Robert Funk speak a few months ago in Sarasota. He presented a workshop discussing some of the findings of the Jesus Seminar, a scholarly attempt to uncover what Jesus really said and did and what was added afterward by his disciples.

The work of the Jesus Seminar has cast a great deal of doubt on the historicity of the passion narrative, the events which lead up to Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus' peasant followers were probably illiterate and it took a while for the Jesus tradition to spread to those who would faithfully record it. In fact it is likely that it took until the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, about 40 years after the likely date Jesus died, before the Gospel writers got to work in earnest canonizing his teachings.

Because the authors of the Gospels likely had little factual material to work with, probably only collections of sayings, some scholars believe they took what they knew of his teachings and constructed a metaphoral fictionalized story of his life which was accurate to the teachings and beliefs they inherited from their early Christian community.

So if we wish to discover who Jesus was and what he has to say to us, we must look critically at all the texts available as well as the historical record to try to recover the man and the message which has been edited to fit the norms, expectations and the circumstances of the early Christian communities. I encourage you now to let go of the questions about what actually happened on Easter morning as this can never be answered with any certainty. We can however recover glimpses of Jesus which are inspirational. I invite you on one such textual journey.

This morning let us step back from the Cross and search for what actions probably got Jesus killed in the first place. What message did he bring that the authorities needed to silence? What message did Jesus bring to Jerusalem for which he was willing to put his life on the line?

The Gospels tell us Jesus was a controversial figure almost from the beginning. Jesus was forever locking horns with the Pharisees. We have many stories of Jesus challenging the Mosaic law when its literal interpretation limited his ability to help people. Controversial as he was, he didn't disturb the Romans, in fact he ate with their tax collectors and centurions. The Roman soldiers weren't threatened by a Rabbi like Jesus because he wasn't inciting the people against Rome. "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's." Jesus reportedly said. In fact the story of Judas' betrayal strongly suggests wasn't a political leader at all.

The group whom Jesus threatened was the temple priests.

Jesus' demonstration in the outer courts of the temple overturning the money-changer's tables must have been a carefully planned and orchestrated event beginning with his entrance into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey. The reason Jesus' episode with the money-changers likely was prophetic protest, what today we might call performing for the media, because his behavior didn't result in his immediate arrest. The outer courts of the temple were probably crawling with Roman soldiers alert for troublemakers. Someone disrupting the tables and freeing pigeons would probably have been seen as a common criminal and perhaps executed on the spot. Rather than calling for his arrest, the people were spellbound by his teaching. When he was questioned by the chief priests about his actions, he responded, "Does not Scripture say, "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations"? But you have made it a robbers' cave."

Rather than immediately assuming the truth of Jesus' robbers' cave assertion, let's step back and think about how the Temple chief priests might have heard this challenge. History has been pretty hard on them and I think we need to understand their perspective too. The temple priests of course were outraged because Jesus didn't understand their situation. You can almost hear them saying, "Who does he think he is? Who is this peasant from Nazarene showing up and trying to tell us how to run the temple?"

Israel at this time was an occupied nation. Before the Romans were the Greeks. Before the Greeks was the Babylonian Captivity. Built into the heart of the Jewish tradition is this understanding: In order to maintain one's identity one must put up boundaries. Without clear boundaries, people will follow the ways of their neighbors and forget their heritage and traditions. Changing the money in the temple was a way to remind the nation of Israel that they were different from the Romans. Their God was not subordinate to the Roman Gods. In reality, the money changers were providing a valuable service to help preserve Jewish identity.

Not only was money changing and purchase of offerings allowed but there were many people doing it creating competition. Having people competing for your business should drive down the cost of changing money, buying sacrifices and stabilize the prices. The priests had a great system to protect the temple from the incursion of foreigners and preserve the purity of worship. And along comes this troublesome fellow Jesus saying, "Does not Scripture say, "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations"? But you have made it a robbers' cave."

Where does Jesus get this idea that things should be handled differently in the temple? Scholars connect Jesus' explanation of his actions to the passages from Isaiah and Jeremiah that I read earlier. If Jesus was inspired by the ideas in these two passages to risk his life, we might glean a better understanding of his message to the priests and scribes by examining these two passages.

The passage from Jeremiah clearly objects to immoral actions made acceptable by the veneer of holiness. Jeremiah objects vehemently to people's use of the temple as a refuge from their lies, saying, "I am safe" in the Temple of the Lord. Ritual sacrifice cannot erase the wrongs done. To create the belief that ritual sacrifice can cleanse and restore one's relationship with God without the change of heart is to turn the Temple into a robbers' cave. On another level, it is likely the money-changers were not competing against each other and had developed abusive, usurious practices. I imagine the volume of money transacted probably tempted the weaker priests who may have changed the interpretation of the cultic laws in favor of the money-changers. As we all know, money and power has a strong corrupting influence. Jesus the country dweller, unfamiliar with urban ways would surely have been offended by the buying and selling in the most holy place in Israel.

Mike Keresztesi, in his final class on biblical archaeology last week, shared with us his thesis that Jesus was one of a long line of prophets objecting to the corrupting effects of the transition from a tribal culture to an urban city-state culture. The prophets objected to the formalization of ritual and the depersonalizing effects of compartmentalization that happens in urban settings. When you pray in the temple, you are not known by the priest who cannot assess the worth of your temple sacrifice. This depersonalization becomes particularly difficult in the temple system since everyone is expected to come to Jerusalem to maintain right relationship with Yahweh. This is one of the big problems with urbanization--you can't know everybody you come in daily contact with. When people don't know each other they begin to relate to each other by their labels and categories. You aren't Joshua, Samuel or Isaac, you are the jeweler, the baker or the tax collector. When people become categories, it is much easier to reduce their humanity.

The passage from Isaiah I think gets us closer to the core teaching of Jesus here. The passage was written in the post-exile period after the return to their homeland attempting to rebuild their lives in the promised land. Two categories of person, eunuch and foreigner, are singled out for inclusion in the house of Israel by the prophet. This must have been a particularly radical message from Jesus' lips since the Roman occupation was so hated. Include the foreigner? That would mean bringing down a boundary which defines us and protects our identity! And include the eunuch. These men were singled out for exclusion in chapter 23 of Deuteronomy, the book which codifies the law of Moses. Isaiah proposes that these people would not be excluded because of their category but are included if they keep the Sabbath. In other words, it is behavior that determines one's acceptability to God, not one's identity.

This remains as disturbing a message today as it was then. Accepting those who are different or unknown to us is a constant challenge. For our own safety, we create barriers to keep out the undesirable elements, be it weather or people. Each religious community erects barriers between us and them. And Jesus comes along and upsets the status quo saying, "Does not Scripture say, "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations"?

I believe Unitarian Universalism is trying to answer Jesus' call to be a house of prayer for all nations. We have gradually eliminated creedal tests for membership in our congregations. With our work in racial and cultural diversity, we are trying to eliminate these informal tests for membership or inclusion in our congregations. Criteria for inclusion must be our behavior, keeping the Sabbath if you will, and our dedication toward living a good life as we grow in understanding within the context of the community. No one should be categorically excluded who honestly accepts our congregational covenant.

The roots of our first principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person, is in Jesus' respect for the potential for good in each person. The roots of Unitarian Universalism are deep in the life of Jesus. Yet it also reaches back beyond him to the prophets before him like Jeremiah and Isaiah. It reaches back to the tribal shamanic leaders herding their sheep and goats. This line of prophets have been speaking this timeless message of accepting people on the basis of their behavior not their category since the beginning of recorded history.

The last line of the reading from Isaiah is particularly striking to me. "I will yet bring home all that remain to be brought in." The work of any church faithful to this call is to be open to all that remain to be brought in. Rather than building barriers, we are encouraged to find ways to include. It isn't us and them. It is us.

This eternal message flows from tongue to ear from age to age without end. Even if the last prophet is slain, the message arises on its own because its truth cannot die. In fact the truth is the only thing that can never be destroyed. No lie or deception can endure for it has no reality to support it. The eternal message continues to be spoken again and again.

Today we celebrate one such messenger, Jesus of Nazareth, who gave his life proclaiming the truth that we are all acceptable participants in the most holy of holies--the Temple. Within all of us is the capacity to live good and moral lives which connect us with each other which realizes what he called the Kingdom of God. Not a place far off but one here and now. The God who inspired Jesus did not stand far off, rather "will yet bring home all that remain to be brought in." "My house is a house of prayer for all the nations." May we too be inspired by Jesus' teaching and open the doors of our heart to all who will share our covenant of love.

Copyright (c) 1997 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore. All rights reserved.