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What Makes God Angry?

The Very Reverend Sam G. Candler
The Cathedral of St. Philip
Atlanta, Georgia
The Third Sunday of Lent
15 March 2009

Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and turned over their tables. … “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house marketplace!”  --John 2-14-16

Maybe it surprises us that Jesus got angry a few times in his life. Events like this familiar story remind us that Jesus was not just a gentle, soft-hearted, new-age spiritual guru – just another feel-good self-help writer.

There are other stories in New Testament where Jesus is more specifically angry. He calls the Pharisees some God-awful names: “white-washed tombs,” “den of snakes.” “Woe to you,” he calls out.

In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that God does get angry. What is it that made Jesus angry? What makes God angry? In short, the dishonoring, the disrespecting of God’s people is what makes God angry.

Consider the background of today’s story: the cleansing of the temple. Two thousand years ago, a child of God was on pilgrimage. He was going up to the great temple of Jerusalem, to offer sacrifice. That trip was the proper pilgrimage for every faithful Jew of the time; it was at the temple where the most effective offerings were made.

The common folk, the common pilgrims, would sometimes carry with them the animal they intended to offer. Maybe it was a sheep, or a turtle dove. Often, however, they would just carry the money, so that they could buy the right offering at the temple itself.

In fact, the right offering was critical. A proper sacrifice consisted of a proper animal. And the temple authorities included inspectors who would examine your animal. A dove had to be perfect. A lamb had to be unblemished, as scripture dictated.

And here is what the pilgrim would often hear at the temple:  “Well, pilgrim, it looks like your lamb, your turtle dove, is not quite right. Uh, you have a problem. There’s a slight blemish. But no matter. We have some already inspected and authorized animals right here—whatever you want—cattle, sheep, doves.”

“However, if you want to buy one of them, you have to use our currency. You have to use temple money”

Yes, the temple accepted only temple money, not the blemished currency of the Roman government.

“You don’t have the right currency? You don’t have the right denomination? Well, it so happens we have some moneychangers right here. They can help you buy, help you trade; they can exchange your money.”

This was what the child of God encountered in the Jerusalem temple two thousand years ago.  This was what Jesus saw in the temple two thousand years ago.

It was not merely a marketplace that Jesus encountered. It was a system by which the great temple authorities required such perfection and purity from the common pilgrim that they made money on the exchange of animals and currency.

Jesus could not tolerate it. “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” he exclaimed. This was what Jesus overturned and drove out of God’s holy place. Jesus was against the institution which prohibited the simple and faithful offerings of the common people.

It is popular these days to claim that Jesus was against institutions, any institution. Such claims use this story of Jesus overturning the moneychangers’ tables. Some people claim that the Christian Church, the Cathedral of St. Philip, is such an institution.

Look how large the church has become! Doesn’t this very Cathedral often look like a marketplace, with tables set up in the atrium, with people making lists and selling this or that?

Would Jesus become angry at our marketplace tables?

Well, Jesus was wary of institutions. The truth is that Jesus did not much like any institution. He certainly was not the political pawn of the state. He rubbed up against the synagogue and the temple. He did not even rest easy about who his mother and father were; the nuclear family was not his favorite institution either.

But it is too easy to throw out institutions these days. It’s too easy to say that because Jesus was against institutions, we should be, too.  And it’s way, way too easy to make that silly claim that we’ve all heard: “I’m a spiritual person. I’m just not part of religious institution; the religious institution has too many problems.”

A spiritual person who is not religious is actually a pretty lonely person. There is no such thing as a spiritual person who does not participate in a religious community. There may be a selfish, self-satisfied, self-righteous, oblivious person who does not belong to a religious community—but that person is not finally spiritual.

So, I want to make a confession today. I want to acknowledge something that folks have said about churches for a long time: “The church has problems.” They are right. And this Cathedral of St. Philip has problems.

And do you know why the church has problems?

Because we bring them here! We’re the ones who bring problems here. So, actually, I believe the church is supposed to have problems!

We gather all sorts of sin here. Look out among our community this morning, or this afternoon. We are full of sin. Some of us have stolen in the past week. As much as I want to ignore it, there are some here who have committed adultery. Some of us have lied. Every one of us has coveted something. And I suspect that every one of us has forgotten at some point who the only God is. Did you hear the Ten Commandments?

We have problems, just like those that the common pilgrim brought to the Jerusalem temple years ago.

And the church (this Cathedral!) is supposed to have problems.

Jesus objected to the moneychangers and the traders because they did not accept the offerings of the common folk, even if they were problematic. That child of God had labored hard and traveled far to make a simple offering to God. When he got to the temple, when he got to the institutional church, that institution said, “Your offering is not quite good enough. You need a special coin. You need an unblemished offering.”

Institutional religion sins when it does not accept the simple and authentic offering of the people. True religion is supposed to accept us, even if we are imperfect and blemished. In fact, true religion is supposed to accept us especially if we are imperfect and blemished, especially if we have problems.

So, the Church not only has problems. The Church wants those problems!

“Destroy this temple in three days,” said Jesus, “and I will raise it back up!’ Destroy this sham, Jesus said. Destroy these walls that try to keep out imperfection and sin. Destroy these walls of self-righteousness and pride.

Destroy this temple, and I will raise it back up. He was speaking of the temple of his body, the Body of Christ.

The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ comes to accept our sin and imperfection. When the Christian church is healthy, we are the body of Christ. When the Christian Church is healthy, we take in sin and imperfection and blemish all the time. We have problems, because the Body of Christ is a house of prayer for all people.

One of the most important things we Christians do is accept the offerings of others. It may be posting the crude crayon picture from our child on the refrigerator door. It may be listening to a bit of bad poetry from our spouse. It may be giving the dirty stranger a place at our church table. The Christian accepts the problems of others.

The miracle of God is that there is no offering that God cannot accept. There is no offering that God cannot use. Sure, God uses the glorious and glittering offerings. But God also uses the imperfect and blemished offerings. God even uses the sin offerings.

Because God would rather have our sin than have us keep it. Each one of us needs to give God our best, but each one of us needs to give God our worst, too.

What do you have to offer God today? Praise God if what you offer is pure and unblemished. That is wonderful. But praise God, too, if all you can offer is something blemished and impure, something imperfect and even sinful. Maybe all you have to offer God today is your incompleteness, your loneliness, your somber sadness, your grief, your despair, even your anger.

The Body of Christ can handle those offerings. We don’t need moneychangers and traders. The Body of Christ can handle whatever we give, and whoever we are. Because the Body of Christ is a body of redemption and forgiveness. Destroy the walls that keep out the poor, turn over the tables of those who keep out the pilgrim and the child of God. Drive out the symbols of self-righteousness, death, and emptiness.

And God will raise up, in us, a new body of life. God will raise up the Body of Christ, with resurrection power.

AMEN.

The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler
The Cathedral of St. Philip

Comments? Contact Dean Candler at: SCandler@stphilipscathedral.org

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