proper authorization

Shalom Mennonite Church

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Lent 3 – “Confronted by Christ”

Text: John 2:13-22

Eric Massanari

“proper authorization”

Consider for a moment the different

things you do each day

to show that you have

the proper authorization to do something,

to buy something,

to enter some place,

to make contact with a particular someone.

Each day we punch in

passwords and pin numbers,

we swipe cards,

we show credentials.

Some of us hang diplomas on our walls;

others put special codes before or after our names

to show we have the proper authorization:

M.D.,

L.C.S.W.,

M.Div.,

Ph.D.,

B.A.,

B.S.

Sometimes our proper authorization

is revealed in more subtle ways

like the way we dress,

the way we speak,

or the way we carry ourselves.

Sometimes we are given proper authorization (or not)

by virtue of things we have no control over:

our skin color, gender, age, our body type or physical abilities.

In such a stratified society

with so many categories and systems

for determining who is given access,

clearance,

and authority,

there are many ways

we show that we have

proper authorization.

There are those boundary lines

we are free to cross,

and those we are not.

In our gospel story this morning

Jesus goes and messes around

with the very well-organized

systems and categories that had been

established in the Jerusalem temple.

It was nearly Passover,

the great feast day of the Jews,

when Jews of all stripes

were flocking to Jerusalem

from near and far.

Once in Jerusalem they were expected

to join in the Temple worship,

which included making offerings and sacrifices.

Those who traveled far could not

bring birds or livestock along

for their offerings; they had to

purchase the animals once they

arrived in the temple—

thus the merchants.

Greek and Roman currency

was not the legal tender in Jerusalem;

it had to be exchanged for the local Tyrian currency—

thus the money changing tables.

It was a well-oiled machine that was at work

in the temple long ago when Jesus walked in

and tossed a wrench into everything.

Listen again to what the leaders of the temple

say to Jesus after he has chased out

the livestock with his whip and

given the merchants a good tongue-lashing.

They ask him:

What sign can you show us for doing this?

It is a question of authority.

Show us you have the proper authority!

What are your credentials?

What gives you the right?

Who do you think you are?

I can almost imagine them saying:

Why didn't you just come talk to us?

We have a special sub-committee for this sort of thing

and if you had just let us know there was a problem

we could have talked about it and worked things out.

Why did you have to go and do this?!

Jesus had not simply confronted

abuses in the system of temple worship,

he confronted the system itself—

a religious system that had grown

so lost in its own workings

that it was no longer able to proclaim

its own deep truths;

it could no longer speak an awakening word.

It could no longer hear God speak a new word.

So the Spirit needed to speak

that new word a bit more loudly

and more furiously through Jesus

in order to be heard and perceived.

The authority by which Jesus acts

is not the authority of the religious system,

it is the authority of the One

on whom that system was meant

to be centered and grounded.

The One who is alive in Jesus

and to whom he is fully awake.

Stop making this house a marketplace.

Make it a house of God.

A house of prayer.

A house of compassion.

A house of mercy.

A house of hope.

Jesus' unauthorized witness in the Jerusalem temple

is a story the church has needed to retell

and—more importantly—re-live through the years.

It is a story I have seen play out

at recent Mennonite Church USA conventions

where gay,lesbian, bisexual and transgendered

Mennonites and their friends and supporters

are not given proper authorization

to gather in any sort of formal way

as part of the convention proceedings.

So, they have found creative ways

to be present, and visible,

and to bear witness.

Wearing pink.

Sharing communion.

Singing hymns.

None of these things have been

disruptive or damaging—

certainly not on the scale of

whips of cords and turning tables!

Yet others have complained

and questioned their authority to do such things.

Why do they have to wear pink and be so visible?

Why do they have to sing and talk at the open mics?

Perhaps so that we, the church, will hear what we need to hear.

So that we will see what we need to see.

So that we will become who we were intended to be.

I think of the Damascus Road Anti-Racism training

that was hosted here in this space two weeks ago.

As part of that training many personal

stories were shared, including stories

told by people of color who had come

to the Mennonite church attracted

by our theology of peacemaking

and seeking the nonviolent way of Christ's love.

They came to this tradition with hope.

They also shared that their move into this

stream of faith had brought pain

as they encountered well-ingrained

systems of racial and cultural oppression

within our church structures.

It became clear to them

that by virtue of their skin color,

language, cultural traditions,

they did not have proper authorization

to speak in certain places,

or serve in certain roles.

I went into that Damascus Road Anti-Racism training

wondering a bit about that language of “Anti-racism”

and the call to be an “anti-racist church”

that is emerging in our denomination.

Why do we have to frame it in terms of what we are against?

Why can't we frame it in terms of what we are for—what we seek?

I came away from the training with

a much more clear understanding that

we are still living into a stage of naming the brokenness.

The tables must still be turned, you could say.

We must recognize patterns that have become

ingrained in the systems of our church,

and do “anti-racism” work before we speak

solely in terms of racial healing and harmony.

We do this so that we will hear what we need to hear.

So that we will see what we need to see.

So that we will become who we were intended to be.

The church needs from time to time,

and from place to place in history,

experiences of Christ

doing some unauthorized

table turning in our well-organized temples.

We need it because we are human.

And in being human we sometimes

create systems designed to serve ourselves

more than the God whose image we bear

and whose Love we were meant to embody.

We need those who speak and act

with the authority of Christ's own love,

calling us, shaking us

back to wakefulness.

And sometimes we need to be the ones

who speak out and act with the authority of Christ's own love.

Thanks be to God

for the Spirit of Truth

that will forever move in our midst

in unauthorized ways!

Amen