虔诚的生命 A Life of Faithfulness

Title: A Life of Faithfulness
Date: 03 March 2024
Preacher： Rev Enoch Keong

A story was told of a tribe in a jungle where everyone started to fall sick. A missionary doctor went to their village and tried to help them. He suspected that the drinking water they used was contaminated. It took no time for the missionary him to prove his suspicion to be correct, and he set up a microscope to show the villagers the cause of the problem.

Make a guess, how does this story continue?

Later that night, when everybody was asleep, someone came and smashed the microscope.

For the villagers in the story, no microscope, no problem. 【1】

Jesus stumbled into a situation like the microscope in the story. Should he never have shown up, it was like no problem, even when things were not how they were supposed to be.

I.
When Jesus stepped into the temple, what he heard was cattle bellowing, sheep bleating, turtledoves cooing, the voices of sellers calling out to potential customers, coins clanging. The court of the gentile had become a noisy open-air market. And almost every corner for worshippers to stand and to say their prayers had been occupied either by animals or tables set up for money changing. (See John 2.13-22)

Question, why didn’t anyone regard that to be a problem? It was because the merchandise on display were necessary items for temple worship.

To present animal sacrifice, animals without blemish were needed. Worshippers were only glad to find the animal traders in the temple. Mind you, the temple had inspectors to ensure that only unblemished animals were brought forward.

To pay the temple tax, worshippers needed to use coins without the image of the Roman emperor. Hence the need for moneychangers.

The things on sale were necessities for proper worship. So instead seeing a problem, the Jews regarded themselves to be doing the right thing to have a market set up in the temple.

The market would deprive the gentiles of the only area that they were allowed to enter and to pray to God. That was not a problem in the eye of an average Jew. The New Testament records instances where Jews regularly treated gentiles as outsiders, unwelcomed. No surprise they felt little for them being short-changed.

Ours is a family church, and family churches have the tendency to be inward looking and are in habit of feeling little for outsiders. But notice this, Jesus in chasing away the merchant was fighting at the same time for outsiders to have a place in God’s house, something we would do well to take note.

Then, with the buying and selling and the animals making sounds, the noise that the market generated would have overpowered all else that was taking place in the temple, making itself the main event. Imagine that. Still, neither the management nor the visitors saw any problem.

Yet one look at it, Jesus saw the problem, and a very serious one.

This led him to stir up a commotion with a whip of cords.

The authorities responded to the mess created by wanting him to prove that he had the right to do what he did. His replied saying, ““Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (v.19)

Jesus’ words sounded ludicrous in the ears of the first hearers.

We churchgoers knows what Jesus mean by, “in three days I will raise it up”. The harder to understand bit is the front part of the sentence. Was Jesus pronouncing God’s judgement on the temple that was corrupted? Or was he issuing a challenge to the Jews? Equally likely, Jesus was chiding the temple authorities as being the problem. Problem because they did things like setting up a market within the temple, which while serving system requirement kills worship. Jesus may be saying that what the Jew had been in the process of destroying, he will have it rebuild in three days.

The cleansing of the temple is a story warning against turning a blind eye to problems that disrupt pure worship. In the case of the Jewish temple, this turning a blind eye led to the religious establishment being captured by the powers of the world. Does the Christian church share a similar problem?

The lectionary, by placing this story in the lent season, calls churches and individual Christians to pause and reflect on what we are doing in the name of the Lord. Do they lead to proper worship? Do they produce a life of faithfulness unto God?

Let’s have a time of reflection on these subjects with 3 guiding questions:

1. What forms the backbone for a life of faithfulness
2. What does “zeal” in verse 17 refers to? And should I be zealous?
3. What is the MUST HAVE as leaders and followers in Christ’s church for a life of faithfulness?
II
What forms the backbone for a life of faithfulness?

The lectionary points us to the 10 commandments for the Old Testament reading. 10 words that sums up how we are to conduct ourselves before God and man.

The 10 commandments were given to Israel when God led them out from slavery in Egypt to become free people journeying towards the promised land. Deliverance from captivity to a life where they were free to choose and to obey. The God who gave the 10 commandments is the God who saves and delivers.

Someone calls the church “a being-saved-community”; Jesus saved us from being lost in sins. Our salvation is also unto freedom. Freedom from cramped little lives, cramped because of sin, camped because of the way the society pressures us, cramped because our needs and wants, fear and anxiety are taking the driving seat of our lives; from such cramped little lives, we are “saved for the broad, roomy, loving discipleship of the cross.” 【2】

The 10 commandments serve as a guide for this discipleship program. They are not regulations attached with punishments should we fail to comply. Instead, the commandments envision a way of living where theology and ethics would go hand in hand. It promotes a syncing up of love for God and love for others. The commandments make it very clear that the two cannot be understood apart from one another.

We know that theology and ethics should go together. Question, how much time do we put in to make it a reality? In this lent season, perhaps we can set aside some minutes each day to reflect on how are doing in syncing up of theology and ethics, and what tweaking to our words and actions, our tone of voice and body language might be helpful.

The scenario in the temple provides a negative demonstration but with something for us to learn. A market was necessary, but must it be set up in the temple which in turn crowded out the space for the gentiles. The problem of the Jews was seeing no problem when things were not in order. To set aside some minutes each day and reflect is one way to move in the broad and roomy space that our Lord has bought for us, to see things as the really are, and to work on this syncing up of our theology and our ethics.

When we try to assemble something, IKEA furniture, whatever. Here and there we need to slow down, take time to slot one component into some others and fit them together. Setting aside some minutes each day to reflect is to do this for our discipleship of the cross.

What forms the backbone of a life of faithfulness to God is wholistic Christian living, and we have the 10 commandments as the road map.

III
Moving on to the second question. The disciples recall in verse 17 what Jesus did in the temple and “…remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”

The word ‘zeal’ suggests someone wanting to do this and that with eagerness to accomplish something. But the disciples weren’t exactly thinking in this direction.

“Zeal for your house will consume me” is a quotation from Psalm 69. The writer of this psalm is laments that because of his faithfulness to God, others were making fun of him, insulting him, saying that he is being silly to hold on to his faith. The psalm is about suffering for one’s faith.

Not a nice situation to be in, but the suffering only causes this psalmist, likewise Jesus, to hold ever more firmly to God. The way they responded to the unpleasant situation poses a question to everyone who claims to be walking by faith, how sharp is our spiritual vision? Are we able to tell apart what truly matters and what doesn’t? And are we willing to let the world boo and hiss on us and not give up on our faith? I am not talking about whether to come to church again next Sunday, but about staying true to that which the 10 commandment urges us towards.

“And should I be zealous?” This is a take home question for us. When we do set aside some minutes each day to reflect, from time to time this question will come to mind in different contexts and wordings. We might ask one day, Should I hang on to my values and beliefs? Should I love when all I get in return is cold shoulder? Should I exercise forgiveness? Having to ask such questions in real life is not a nice situation to be in. And let’s be honest, we are prone to give ‘no’ for the answers. So let me say 2 things by way of encouragement.

One, salvation, we said, is onto a journey that is broad and roomy in nature. Broad and roomy means that there is space to be ourselves, that we are allowed to go slow, even to delay and drag before we respond in willingness to God. That is in part what broad and roomy is about. Our God comes to us lovingly, leading us in the loving discipleship of the cross.

Second, when we feel lacking in strength to press on, know this: we are still on track. The New Testament reading in today’s lectionary is about the crucified Christ, who looks so weak and inadequate being the power and wisdom of God. The reading reminds us that to “the focus on the inadequate is a necessary condition for true faith.” 【3】 Being inadequate is no issue to God, the question then is one of the willingness of our heart to press on in the loving discipleship of the cross.

IV
And now to the final question, What is the MUST HAVE as leaders and followers in Christ’s church for a life of faithfulness to God?

Whether we choose to admit it or not, we know that the church is not immune to the values and ways of the world. Gradually and subtly, and often in service of the church and its missions, worldly ideas and influences creep into the church. And the church that seeks to be Christlike is at the same time undergoing molding by the world.

With this push and pull happening, church leaders and followers of Christ would do well to take heed of a 17th century motto: the church reformed always to be reformed according to the word of God.

We might be more familiar with shorter translation of the motto, “The church reformed always reforming,” But that’s not what the original in Latin is saying. The church reformed always reforming suggests that the church is taking lead and should chart the direction of reform. But the Latin original meant to say that the church is “to be reformed’ and by God’s word, to become more and more Christlike. Church is to be led and not to lead in the work reformation.

Psalm 19, the lectionary psalm reading for today, is a good place to start when speaking about the church being led by the word of God. The second half of the psalm praises God’s law. And let me say this again, the laws in the bible are not regulations attached with punishments should we fail to comply. According to Calvin, the law is at the same time a mirror, a fence and a guide. A mirror because law reflects to us, our true self. A fence because it sets up a boundary, and within the big space in this boundary, communities live and function freely and safely. And a guide because it gives us the road map onto the path of godliness.

Laws are usually phrased negative, such as “thou shall not…” When reading the law, Calvin in giving us the 3 images also says that we are to go beneath the letter, get the point and essence of the laws are aiming to convey, and translate them into positive encouragement and action. Laws are mirrors, fence and guide.

Let me read the verses on the screen that describe the law:

the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward. (Ps 19:9-11)

God’s law is like gold, honey and honeycomb. Calvin did not pluck out the 3 images from thin air, he is being in line with this psalmist. The psalmist is calling God’s people to let God’s words take the lead. I want to add that church leaders should be first to do so. I am saying this considering the gospel story we read this morning. Let us ask ourselves, the things we do in the name of Jesus, do they produce a life of faithfulness, in the leaders; own lives and the lives of the sheep?

For one last time this morning I would like to encourage us to set aside some minutes each day to reflect. Leaders do this to lead the church to move in the broad and roomy space that our Lord has bought for us. And to everyone here, me included, things that we take time and pay attention to carefully assemble, will be able to perform according to design.

In closing, let us pray together the words of the psalmist (Ps 19:14),

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

【1】https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/77623/no-microscope-no-problem-by-gordon-curley
【2】Buttrick D., Homiletic: Moves and Structure, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987. P.459.
【3】Barlett D. L. (ed.) & Taylor B. B (ed.), Feasting on the Word: Year B, Vol. 2: Lent through Eastertide, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition, p.222.

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