Grandma and the Preacher

First Lesson: Exodus 20: 1-17
Responsive Reading: Psalm 19
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25
​Gospel Lesson: John 2: 13-22

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Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
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“Speak when you are angry, and you make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”-Laurence J. Peter

Let me begin by telling a story about Grandma.  One day, I was visiting Grandma at the nursing home.  Grandma asked me a question “How come no one from the church comes to see me?”  Now Grandma’s church has a good size membership perhaps 1500 plus.  The Visitation Pastor is going to be quite busy.  Everyone in town knows Grandma for being opinionated both appropriately and inappropriately.  Now assuming the church’s good intentions, I told Grandma to call the church office then call back in two weeks if she hadn’t received a response.  Grandma didn’t care for the patience involved with my suggestion!

She asked that I instead track down a piece of paper and a pen.  Grandma was going to fire off a letter.  Grandma’s strong suits have never been subtlety or diplomacy.  Grandma writes the pastor declaring she no longer considers herself a member of the Church.  She accused the pastor of caring more about more a paycheck than saving souls.  Grandma then concludes that if Jesus met the pastor, then Jesus would demand the white collar back.  Now, this letter was amazing, as someone who writes all the time I was impressed that Grandma was able to fire off the letter in one draft without edits.  As someone who is occasionally called to encounter difficult people, Grandma’s letter contained more high drama than most other people could even imagine with the angriest of their insults.  It probably didn’t help things that nothing gets Grandma angrier than woman preachers. 

Now here’s the thing about Grandma, she was right the church should have been making more of an effort to visit her.  It doesn’t matter if Grandma wasn’t the most regular church attendee or the most opinionated ninety plus-year-old woman in Chisago County.  Grandma was right to be irritated if not angry.  So the question about Grandma and the Preacher this morning for us to consider is “How should we handle our anger as Christian people?” Should we just fire off angry letters and hope they solve all our problems.  Or does our anger in many cases ultimately cause more destruction than we can imagine?

Second story for this morning, In the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles were playing in Boston versus the Beaneaters who would come to be known as the Braves[1][2].  The game started off as normal.  In the third inning everything changed[3].  On a seemingly routine play, Orioles first baseman Tommy Tucker known as “foghorn” for his loudness on the field slid into Beaneaters third baseman John Mcgraw who would come to be known as “Little Napoleon[4].” While tagging Tucker, McGraw managed to kick Tucker in the head.  Tucker wasn’t going to take this from the smaller McGraw without retaliating, so he gets up to punch him.  Punches start to fly between Tucker and McGraw with the whole crowd cheering the hometown McGraw.

In all this distraction, a group of children sets a fire underneath the right field bleachers.  The fire quickly spread throughout the whole ballpark[5].  Seats are soon on fire and the stands began to empty.  Tucker and McGraw only stop fighting because the blaze threatens to consume them.  Pretty soon, Boston’s South End Grounds ballpark is destroyed.  The fire continues to spread though engulfing several city blocks.  The fire which would become known as the “Great Roxbury Fire” would end up destroying upwards of 170 buildings in South Boston[6]. 

Tucker and McGraw’s fight makes an important point about Anger that it doesn’t merely affect us, but instead everyone else with whom we come into contact and even those who we don’t meet.
The following stories of Anger’s dramatic effects bring us to our Gospel lesson for Today from John 2[7].  The lesson contains the famous Gospel story of Jesus in a fit of anger overturning the money-changers tables.   It’s the most notable example of Jesus showing anger throughout the Gospels. Here’s some background on what took place. 

Every Jewish male over the age of 20 was required to attend Jerusalem during the Passover which Christians now know as “Holy Week.”[8].  This trip had two requirements.  Number one, they were supposed to pay their annual Temple tax.  Number two, pilgrims were required to bring Animals to the Temple as a way of atoning for past sins.   These things would not have been unusual occurrences within 1st Century Judaism, Jesus is instead critiquing something else.

The problem with the Temple Tax was the political situation of Jesus’ day.  Jews were living under Roman rule, so all legal currency had the images of Roman emperors who considered themselves to be gods.  So because of this Roman money was banned within the Temple as a violation of the 1st Commandment “Thou shall have no other Gods before me.” So currency exchanges would take place outside the temple, where the Roman money would be exchanged for Temple money.  The problem is Temple money had no value, so the money-changers could claim what they wanted for themselves. The system was rife with abuse.   

The issues with animal sacrifice were similar.  People had the option of bringing their own animals to the Temple to be sacrificed, but in many cases, this required traveling hundreds of miles with sheep and oxen which wasn’t the easiest thing to do.  You couldn’t just bring any animals; the animals had to be inspected before the journey by a priest to make sure such animals were suitable for sacrifice.  Many animals that people brought would be disqualified because of minor blemish[9].  This background creates another financial opportunity for those associated with the Jerusalem temple.  So Temple authorities would sell animals within Temple grounds. 

Now I’m not a beer-drinker, but when I go to Vikings games, I can’t help but notice that beer sells for 9.50 for something like 16 ounces.  Any small-town bar would close if they tried such a thing since people couldn’t afford it.  Back to our lesson, when you’ve traveled hundreds of miles and can only get an approved animal inside the temple courts.  The price gets highly inflated and huge profits are made by religious authorities. 

So Jesus enters our Temple on the day of our lesson and hears an odd mix of commerce and religious ritual[10].  So Jesus gets mad just like Grandma, John McGraw or Tommy Tucker, he grabs a rope uses it like a whip and no different than the Great Roxbury Fire quickly empties the Temple.  Jesus then comes across the money-changers tables and flips them over knocking coins all over the place. 

Now back to My Grandma.  Grandma hands me the letter tells me to deliver the letter.  I figure I should give the letter to my Dad.  I get Grandma to agree to let my dad handle the letter.  Dad figures the letter is probably best not delivered.  Dad didn’t want to burn a lot of bridges at a Church where he had been a member for some sixty-five plus years and Grandma had belonged for ninety plus years.  Grandma never brought the letter up ever again. 

Now as the Disciples are witnessing this scene, they probably had a similar reaction they were worried about all the burnt bridges that such an outburst was going to cause. They were worried that Jesus like Grandma was just going to provoke the religious authorities of his day unnecessarily[11]. 

Jesus’ outburst though was more than him just getting steamed at the moment.  Jesus’ outburst was intended to make a very definite point about the nature of his kingdom. 

Jesus in Mark’s Gospel gives the reason “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations[12].”

Jesus’ outburst took place not because there were animals near the worship space, or even because of the nature of a temple tax.  Jesus’ outburst was driven by the fact that good religious leaders were profiting on making it more difficult to have access to God’s house.  Jesus got mad because such a system was made to exclude non-Jews and other assorted sinners from his house. 

To quote: Pastor Daniel Habben “God’s house was no longer a refuge (for sinners); it had been turned into a den of robbers) and Jesus was not going to put up with this[13].”

So Jesus got mad and flipped the money-changers temple’s because he saw the message of God’s grace being corrupted on Temple grounds.

So Jesus gets angry in our lesson for Today, we often get angry throughout our lives.  So is our anger one in the same?

Here’s where our anger is different.  We get angry when someone upsets us.  We get angry when we want something for ourselves that we don’t receive[14].  

I have a family member who is known for every time she goes to a restaurant, she finds something to complain about with the meal, with the wine, with the waiter, and people dining with her fear what minor flaw that she might point out next.  Anger in cases such as this one are all about us: our wants and our desires then turning around and claiming them as God’s. Anger in many cases is all about “What’s in it for me[15]?”  If I can lash out at someone else’s failings to make myself feel better, then all the better. 

Here’s what makes Jesus’ anger different.  Jesus’ anger was all about human sin.  Jesus knew of the destruction even worse than the Great Roxbury Fire that human sin causes day and day out.  Jesus’ anger was all about setting the world right again, anger at a restaurant waiter is not a good comparison.  The thing about Jesus’ anger is that it wasn’t fully taken out on this day, it would instead be taken out later on Holy Week as he journeyed to the cross. Jesus knew that imperfect religious authorities alone would not be enough, he knew a different answer was ultimately needed in response to our anger. 

So if Jesus flipping tables at the Temple the journeying to the grave is his response to anger, how should we respond to Anger within our own lives? We shouldn’t lash out in angry letters nor start brawls at Baseball games.  Perhaps instead, we need to take a step back look at anger’s destructive consequences in the world around us and see that Jesus does not endorse the anger which is too often in this world.  Jesus instead seeks to triumph over anger for our sake, no matter how opinionated my Grandma might be at any given moment.   Amen
                   


[1] Published in Daily Bread on August 13th, 1992.  Analogy was founded on sermonillustrations under anger on Feburary 12th, 2018. 
[2] Hill, David. “Braves History: Fight, Fire Mar Game Against Orioles.” Call to the Pen found on Fansided network of webblogs. The article was accessed on Feburary 12th, 2018 and published nine months prior according to website. 
[3] Hill, David. “Braves History: Fight, Fire Mar Game Against Orioles.”
[4] Hill, David. “Braves History: Fight, Fire Mar Game Against Orioles.”
[5] Hill, David. “Braves History: Fight, Fire Mar Game Against Orioles.”
[6] Hill, David. “Braves History: Fight, Fire Mar Game Against Orioles.”
[7] John 2:13-22. 
[8] Habben, Daniel “What's Eating Jesus?” Sermon Central. 20.Mar.2006. Web. Feb.12.2018. 
[9] Habben, Daniel “What's Eating Jesus?”
[10] Habben, Daniel “What's Eating Jesus?”
[11] Habben, Daniel “What's Eating Jesus?”
[12] Mark 11:17. 
[13] Habben, Daniel “What's Eating Jesus?”
[14] Graham, Billy. “I admit I get angry fairly easily, but why is anger supposed to be a sin? After all, the Bible says that God sometimes gets angry, doesn't it? And wasn't Jesus angry when He drove those moneychangers out of the Temple?” Billy Graham Association. 7.Oct.2016. Web. Feb.12.2018. 
[15] Habben, Daniel “What's Eating Jesus?”