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The Story of Worship and Mission: Part 9
He comes to his threshing floor.Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"
The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. Matthew 21:12-15.
The place of worship had ceased to be a place of mercy. This is evidenced by the presence of the blind and the lame who were apparently being stepped around like furniture. The threshing floor is the place of judgment-- where wheat and chaff are separated. The good news is that the place of worship becomes a place of pre-emptive judgment. The place of worship holds out the possibility of repentance, a true turning to God, which leads to our redemption as opposed to destruction.
Now think back through the scenes of this unfolding story and make some theological connections. They are manifold.
Labels: worship and mission
posted by John David Walt | at 2/16/2009 03:01:00 AM
Today...
5 Comments:
JD,
I'm catching up with the worship discussion. I had to note a few posts back your comment about worship being a dance. I've heard that somewhere. I do like the additional imagery of dancing on the feet of Jesus.
Sorry to coopt your current comment. I'll get on topic soon.
As Jesus pointed out the injustice in the temple, it is sometimes the task of the preacher to point out the injustice going on in our city and/or community of faith. Jesus is uniquely direct in His communication of injustice here. His usual style of teaching is to point out the injustice in a more subversive way through parables. I remember Eugene Peterson once saying how the parable was for those "who have ears" and want to hear. These members of the wheat family wrestle with the story or analogy and then BOOM it goes off like a bomb and they are convicted of their sin. Is this our task as preacher in worship, to present the gospel in a way that is life-transforming for the wheat?
If this does not find a place in the "Word" section of the service, it always is present in our Confession before Communion (if we use the amazing one on page 12 in the UMC hymnal). "We have failed to be an obedient church. . .we have not heard the cry of the needy. . .forgive us we pray and free us for joyful obedience. This is much more direct and provides great prompting for repentance.
So what is the threshing floor, the word or the table?
This is like squeezing the orange juice out of an orange... it's pretty tough to squeeze, and it takes a while to get a full glass...
Very fresh and good, though!!
A couple of preliminary thoughts:
--The law in Leviticus 19 made provision for the poor by the gleanings being left for them in the fields.
==> As people of God, the Israelites were to imitate God's mercy as He had bestowed it upon them
--Ruth ends up gleaning in Boaz' field, and she ends up going to Boaz at the threshing floor to see if he will be her kinsman-redeemer...
==> Christ is our kinsman-redeemer. God became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14) to redeem us from our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21)
--David's mistake of taking the census of his army leads him to purchase the threshing floor that will eventually be the temple...
==>Another instance of God's mercy and redemption.
--John the Baptist prophesies, "he will clear his threshing floor"... Jesus clears the temple of the money changers and merchants...
==>the alien & poor were the ones hindered/deterred from worship in the temple. Christ is the mediator. Access to the Father is given through the Son (Heb. 4:14-16).
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Found it! They begin in November 2008.
***God represents Himself consistently in Scripture as a God who exacts judgement and who redeems. Both are equally part of His character.
***God calls men to account at the place of meeting. The Law that reveals sin draws men inward (inside the Temple) to a place of holy communion. The Word that reveals sin draws men to a place of communion with God where they must give an account either through Christ or apart from Him.
***God's exacts His wrath purposefully, never at random. (Lev. 10, 1 Sam 4, Matt 21, Acts 5)
***God invested Himself into us at creation. He is jealous for His image in man. So, He requires us to value human life through our mercy and love for justice.
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