Ezra 6:1-16
Mark 11:15-19
I don’t know about you, but when I was young, my mom would make these
decrees every once in awhile. “You can’t go to your friend’s house, the dance,
the hobby shop (or just about anything else you can think of) until your room
is clean.” Every once in awhile, when I look at my car, I hear her voice in my
head. After days or weeks of hospital calls, home visits, other meetings, I
look at my car and think, “What a pig sty.”
Empty coffee cups, soda glasses, food wrappers, books, magazines,
newspapers, clothes, hats, and depending on the season, gloves and boots seem
to accumulate and multiply in my car. I lost a traveling communion set back
there for almost three months one time. It’s the cost of almost living in the
car at times.
So occasionally, I have to take boxes and garbage bags out to car and clean
the detritus (that’s a nice word for garbage) out of the car. If I am feeling
energetic, I might even vacuum and wash the windows and dashboard. Washing the steering wheel is always a good
thing to do. Yes, I am always amazed at the dirt that collects there.
Today we hear about cleaning things out. Nebuchadnezar took all of the holy
things out of the temple when he conquered Judah. He would have wanted to show
the world that he possessed the power of the vessels, but he was also afraid to
use them, so he put them in a vault somewhere to collect dust.
Now Darius commands that these vessels be found and put back where they
belong. It’s cleaning day. In order to do this, they need to first rebuild the
temple as the appropriate place where they should
be kept. That means taking the holy things back to Jerusalem. So, King Darius,
cleans house and sends everything back with Ezra and Nehemiah.
Amid the vessels, the writings of the people are found. The Scriptures have
been locked away for years. You can read about the reading of these lost
writings in Nehemiah 8.
After the temple has been rebuilt, it begins to collect stuff just like my
car. Pilgrims come to worship at the
temple. They want to bring their sacrifices to the Lord. Because sheep, goats,
and doves don’t always travel well, they need a place to get them. What better
place than the temple courtyard itself?
Local coins had the head of
the emperor on them. Jewish coins could not have images of people on them
because that worshipped idols since the emperors claimed to be gods. The Jews were
therefore unable to use the local coins in the temple. In order to buy the sheep,
goat, or pigeon, temple coins were needed. What better place to exchange bad
money for good than the temple courtyard?
Life had intruded into worship
in a way that did not honor God any longer. Like my car, it had collected the
detritus of the world. It was convenient, but not very helpful.
Jesus enters the temple
courtyard, sees the detritus, and decides that it is cleaning day. It is time
to make the space of worship clean, to fill the courts with praise and
thanksgiving, not the haggling of exchange rates and bargaining for livestock. Let’s
not even go to the detritus from the livestock.
We too are called to do some
spring-cleaning in our spiritual spaces. Have we gotten so involved in the matters
of life that our faith lives are cluttered and overpowered by our own concerns?
Do we need to find room for prayer, praise and thanksgiving that honors God and
the gifts we have been given?
Sometimes it is helpful to
remember that the clock was invented by Benedictine monks who wanted to make
sure that they didn’t miss the times of prayer. They made clocks with faces
large enough to be seen in the fields and rang bells at the appropriate times so
that they could get back to chapel in time. Time for them was for prayer. Work
was done in between the times for worship and prayer. This prayer time was a
way of keeping their hearts clean, and it focused their thoughts while they
worked.
We often forget that
important time in our lives. There are those who will say, “Time is money,” but
time is the gift of life itself. Prayer is that time of thanks for that gift
and a time to remember those around us who share time with us.
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