Sermon for Sunday 11th March
2012
Harvest Festival
Deuteronomy
26:1-11
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
John
2:13:22
‘Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’
Well I guess we probably may well think
that this is a rather strange text for a Harvest festival service – surely
better to use the letter to the Corinthians with its exhortation to generosity,
or the reading from Deuteronomy which seems to be a sort of early harvest
festival (By the way if you note in the Deuteronomy reading they bring everything
to church, so to speak, and then throw a party with it all J - but more of this
later) – Yes Either of those readings fit well with a Harvest festival – but
why this reading about the cleansing of the Temple?? Well I might respond that
it is the set gospel, which it is, or that it fits my theme for the week, which
it does – but given that that theme is Blessing, Generosity and Hospitality –
we might still be left scratching our heads – especially with the opening text
of the sermon - ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’??
What does the Temple, the money changers, and the death and resurrection of
Jesus have to do with Harvest Festivals?
What is the connection? Well I happen to
think that this gospel reading is all about Harvest, about rightly celebrating
the goodness of God and revealing something of the powerful forces at work
which seek and indeed often succeed in
destroying our sense that ‘all good gifts around us are sent from heaven
above’
But to illustrate why I need to speak of a
myth. A myth is as I’m sure you are aware a Controlling story. It is a ‘truth’
that our lives are oriented by. It is a ‘truth’ but that does not mean it is
true. Only that is it true for us, it is the story we tell ourselves about ‘How
Things Are’ Some are personal and private, and we all have these - but some are
Big Stories –Out There, dominating people and governments, hearts and minds.
The myth of which I wish to speak is ‘The Myth of Scarcity’ and it is a
powerful myth in our culture, a culture in which we have become increasingly
disconnected from the Good Earth.
To illustrate the Myth of Scarcity I’d like
to tell a couple of brief stories. Firstly the Story of “what happened to
Harvest??”
Over the past few years in England at any
rate, away from the countryside something strange was happening in churches in
towns and cities. Indeed I saw it happen in the church where I was a curate –
the story went about – all this stuff about food and farming, the sheaves of
corn and the like, just doesn’t connect to our lives here in the town – we need
something more relevant – I’ll say that again, just in case you missed it all
this stuff about food and farming, the sheaves of corn and the like, just
doesn’t connect to our lives here in the town – we need something more relevant
– and so in Pudsey we had a Harvest of Pudsey – it was all about the talents
and abilities God had given us. Well I leave to one side the obvious point that
the focus had shifted more onto us and less onto the Miraculous provision of
God – just to reflect about how folk in the town thought of food. Dissociated
from the Land, their story about food was no longer about where it came from,
rather their story about food was if anything to do with prices and
availability in the supermarket – where was the cheapest place to buy food.,
and thus prey to fear that their might not be enough. We saw this radically
enacted in times of drought when there were on occasions fights over bottled
water
And then a second story - It was my first visit to Synod here in
New Zealand and certainly if the groaning table at the evening meal was
anything to go by, there was much that had been gathered in ‘ere the winter
storms begin. But . . . in part the mood seemed to be covering over a deep
seated problem. I refer to the finances of the Diocese, which was variously
described as very dodgy, precarious, worrying and ‘falling off a cliff’. Well
fortunately I had in David Fielding an excellent guide to the accounts sat
beside me and so I asked, could he point me to the liquid assets, the cash
reserves at the ready disposal of the diocese. And I was left thinkng – ‘why
all the glum faces?’ having come from a much larger Diocese, with much smaller
reserves. It’s a Prime example of ‘The Myth of Scarcity’ and this Myth seems to
afflict people in inverse proportion to what they have – and it is the story we
tell ourselves that ‘it’s all going to run out’ – Celebration in abundance is
far more muted than Celebration in need. There we were, eating an incredibly good
meal and worrying about whether the money was going to run out – it was . . .
well perverse really. Faced with Wonderful confirmation of God’s provision – we
doubted in the provision of God. We are afraid it will all run out – so we
hoard and save and exercise financial management . . . and yet God has Always
provided in Abundance
A few years ago this myth of Scarcity was
mocked by the Archbishop of York at a large Diocesan Gathering I attended.
‘You are always saying here in England’ –
The Archbishop is Ugandan – You are always saying in England, ‘ We are saving
for a rainy day!’ – Well it is ALWAYS raining in England!! Always Saving
against tomorrow, not believing in God’s provision for tomorrow – Give us this
day our daily bread we pray, but then we go out and accumulate enough to keep
us for many many days.
The Old Testament Scholar, Walter
Brueggemann, who was the first person to help me see this myth, puts it like
this – speaking of the miraculous provision of daily bread in the wilderness,
the Manna he says ‘[the Isrealites] had never before received bread as a
free gift. The meaning of this strange narrative
[the manna from heaven], is that the gifts of life are indeed Given by a
generous God. It’s a Wonder, It’s a Miracle, It’s an EMBARRASSMENT, it’s
Irrational, but God’s abundance transcends the market economy’ It’s
embarrassing because if when we are believe the myth of Scarcity, or worry
about whether there will be enough,
we discover the Generosity of God, we feel Embarrassed at our foolishness.
It’s an Embarrassment because the myth of Scarcity says ‘it’s all about Us’ –
but the Scriptures tell us ‘Its ALL about God!’ (Which by the way is why we
should be VERY wary of teaching on ‘being Good Stewards’) We Hate being served
– we hate being blessed – we want to be able to say ‘My right hand and the
strength of my arm hath gotten me this, rather than accept the free gift of
God. The myth of Scarcity is an offence against Grace
The children of Israel had forgotten the
Big Story of the Abundance of God, and taken on once more the myth of Scarcity
– so they’re all into business and trade and trying to make profits from God’s
generosity, trying to secure their own futures rather than accept God’s future
– they are Denying that God is Who God is, Jehovah Jireh - the God who provides
– and what is more, this act of apostasy, of practical atheism is taking place
Right in the heart of the Temple. It comes to me as I write that there is a lot
of mystery surrounding the phrase ‘The Abomination that causes Desolation’ what
is it that is set up in the Temple that deserves such Censure?? Could it be
this??
Why is it Such desecration in The Temple?
Because this was symbolic of the dwelling place of God – in the Very place that
Israel was supposed to remember this story of Salvation – of Life and Provision
– they were denying it – choosing as once before had the Man and the Woman in
the Garden, in the midst of God’s abundance to take matters into their own
hands – refusing God’s over Abundant Enough, for the Lure of More. It is the
old story we hit on a few weeks ago – there is no God AND. When we say God is
not enough we reveal that we are strangers to God, and we discover we do not
have enough
And So this Temple must go – it must be
rebuilt – it must be a fitting House of God. And what in reality was always meant to be The House of God? Not specialized
religious establishments, not places where the sacred coule be kept neatly away
from the profane – No. The True dwelling place of God was the place God Made to
dwell in with humankind – the heavens and the Earth – The Creation. The Temple,
symbolized the fact that Creation was the dwelling place of God
The Creation, the place which was pure
Gift, the place of Gift, the place of Grace. Because we want to make our own
lives we either ignore Grace, or if we are religious reduce it to a spiritual
message – we are happy to have the money changers, just not in the temple – we
thing Grace and Salvation are spiritual matters – we take the provision of the
Manna in the wilderness and say -
this has been spiritualised in Jesus - and now only applies to the forgiveness
of sins. Daily bread reduced to spiritual graces. We do not believe that God
provides Everything – that Salvation is the Whole of Life that in the Risen Christ there is Only
Abundance and that the myth of Scarcity is a Lie.
I entitled the service today – Blessing,
Hospitality and Generosity – and we may well think ‘When are we going to get on
with that’ – with exhortations to bless – like from 2 Corinthians, to be
Generous and to be hospitable – but that would be exactly to miss the point –
this isn’t about Us being Generous, or Hospitable or indeed blessing – it is
about God’s Generosity, God’s Hospitality, God’s Blessing.
As Moses gave the people of Israel Directions
about how they should respond to the generosity of God as they entered the land
he said this – you will take some of the first fruit of the land – the first
things that God gives you – ad you will go up to the Place where the Lord your
God will chooses a dwelling for his name – you will come into God’s House –
with what God has done for you and recite there all that God has done for you -
‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there
as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and
populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us,
by imposing hard labour on us, 7we cried to the Lord,
the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and
saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and
wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a
land flowing with milk and honey. 10So now I bring the first of the
fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.
You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow
down before the Lord your God’ – and then this wonderful
turn – God does not consume it all by fire – he doesn’t say, this is no more
than I deserve – you can go now – no – ‘Then you, together with the Levites and
the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.’
You come into God’s house with the things
God has given you and God says – use them to throw a party for yourselves. God
has provided for a feast – it is God’s House, God’s Hospitailty, God’s
generosity and abundance which we celebrate today – made Real in the New Temple
– the one in whom all things hold together, forgiveness, generosity, blessing
and hospitality - our Risen
Saviour, Jesus Christ
