Didn't preach on the 26th

Hi anyone who reads this.
I, sadly, had to do a funeral for Kenneth Graves last weekend. I didn't prepare or preach a sermon. Norm Gano stepped in for me. Thanks Norm.
Kenneth was 39- I was just gettting to know him. He had just started a relationship with Jesus Christ. It was a beautiful thing to see.
may he rest in peace,
Corey

John 2:13-22- Is God For Sale?

John 2:13-22- Is God For Sale?
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
18 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
20 The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
My senses were engaged by this scripture:
Let’s Visualize this scripture together:
- Jesus getting steaming mad
The making of the whip- v. 15 "So he made..."
The animals
The tables and coins flying
The voices being raised over the building of the temple and its importance

Explain the text-
Passover
Sacrifices
Money exchanging
Temple building prominence [expound]
What’s he saying about the temple being rebuilt?
The deep truth of verse 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." . The building temple was passing away. Jesus became the temple- and we by believing in him and his resurrection become the temple of the Holy Spirit
Ironically we can also become the people who violate the Temple of Christ- who clutter up the temple with the wrong things
This scripture teaches of priorities- what does this scripture say?
Other Scriptures related to sacrifice:
Cain And Abel
Other scriptures related to Jesus’ values and priorities:
- Perfume on the feet- John 12 [expound]
- Taxes to Caesar- Luke 20, Matt 22 [expound]
- Temple tax- Matt 17 [expound]
Jesus values are what? Its not about money it is about What is God’s
Giving to God without putting anything in your path that is not of God
And definitely not blocking anyone else’s opportunity to worship
Why was Jesus so upset? What’s the big deal?
They are missing the point of the temple- the point was relationship with God. People were putting barriers in the way of relationship with God.
Sermonize- Let’s take this scripture and apply it at different levels
Global- Big picture- are we the Church- with a Big C- are we taking care of God’s Body. Are we taking good care of creation- or are we using it for our convenient habits?
How about Global wealth? We have 1billion or so folks who live on less than one dollar a day- this is called extreme poverty. Meanwhile we as Americans consume 25% of the worlds resources. The extreme wealthy- live lavishly and control and influence the "elected" leaders. CEO’s make 400 times an average employee salary. How are we doing? Have we fully embraced the Kingdom of God? Have the 2 billion plus Christians in the world- really lived out the value system of Jesus?
What are we doing to make God’s world a more just- beautiful and healthy place?
Local- Why are we here as a church? So that we and others can have/become in relationship with God. I want every worship opportunity to be a place and a time where some one can come in- without any church background or any commitment to God- and I believe they should be able to leave this place and time knowing that God loves them and that there is a purpose for their life.
God is so valuable that we can’t sell anything for enough money to honor him- the only way to pay God off is to create a place where people can freely worship Him- especially the poor of Spirit-
But Jesus this is the way we’ve always done it! It works great- it is so convenient.- I can see some locals saying to Jesus that day.
What was so wrong with it.- they started to believe in the sacrifices so much- even more than the God behind it all.- Can we get to a point where we are worshiping our religious forms and not our God.
We should challenge our local worship community and look and see if there are any barriers in the way we approach worship- that may be blocking others from a worship experience. Do our actions and attitudes match up with what we say happens here? We say God meets us here as a community- teaches us and blesses us? Do we show fruit of these blessings and teachings? Or can people only see the ritual and barriers. Would Jesus run in with his rag tag bunch of followers and be warmly greeted- or would he have to make a whip first and do some cleaning up. As participants in this worship community, or in our families- we should always ask that question: Would Jesus want to be with us here?
Personal- What does this scripture say to us as individuals?
Barriers: The sins here are greed, treating the poor unjustly, religious snobbery- Remember when we believe- we become a temple- we become a part of the body of Christ- a home for the Holy Spirit
So letting sins build up in your life- not dealing with your greed, your lust, your bigotry, your anxiety- is not okay- you are devaluing yourself. God wants to live in you- and we allow this clutter to block others from seeing that the Holiest of All lives inside us. Is it time for you to let the words of Jesus in the scriptures turn into a whip- and let him clean house? Let him drive out your sheep of selfishness, your cattle of carnality, flip over your tables of treason
Challenge: Is it okay to be angry and aggressive? Jesus is not "nice" here?
I am not saying: "Whip yourself" I am saying "Respect who you really are
Accept and Love who you were created to be- a dwelling place of God
Embrace that God wants to fully inhabit your life– that he is as passionate for your life, body and soul as He was for the temple that day-
God puts passions in your soul- but the clutter can cloud us from passion
Passion: What is your deep passion? Jesus had a deep passion for people relating to Father God- things that got in the way bugged him.
You can enter more deeply into the life of God- by listening through, prayer, worship and the scriptures- you can here, see, feel and smell- the passion God has given you. Maybe it is your family- maybe it is this community- maybe it is serving the poor- Maybe it is teaching children of the love of God- maybe it is embracing the suffering.
God is not for sale- God’s value- is beyond our comprehension- but his values- His passions- are plain in scripture for us to see. And God wants us to buy into His value system His passion for the globe= his passion for our local community- His passion to live fully in each of Us
Will you buy in? The currency he accepts is a willing, contrite soul.
Buy in. Give him your soul, your life. And this transaction comes with a guarantee that my friend Robert told me, "Jesus didn’t say it would be easy, but it will be worth it."

What is Your Soul Worth?

Mark 8:31-38 "What is Your Soul Worth?"
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man (a title that Jesus calls himself- somewhat ambiguous in the OT- so maybe he used this title precisely because people could not pin him down as easily) must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny (to totally disown) himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save (to be whole) his life (literally= psyche- soul) will lose (die, destroy) it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit (mortally injure) his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul (What ransom would you pay for your soul)? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
Does Jesus know how to ask questions, or what? [re-read some]
His teaching caused me to ask some questions this week
Does overvaluing my self and my importance actually do harm to my soul?
Can gut reactions, like Peter’s, be wrong? Who controls my gut?
Do I have to follow Jesus to be a Christian? Because if I do, I wonder if I am a Christian a majority of the time?
What does it mean to follow Christ?
What is the deal with Peter?- Give him a break- he reacted to an emotionally charged prediction with an emotional message- from his gut- a gut reaction- of support and defiance- He didn’t know that Christ- wasn’t looking for this defiance. Simply put- the deepest part of him reacted to what Christ was saying.
Peter was in the habit of these type of knee-jerk reactions? Do you know any knee- jerks? Are you a knee-jerk? He had been one for a long time- he was zealous, hard headed and stubborn. When habits and behaviors build up- How do stop doing something that you have done for so long? How do you stop being someone you have been for so long?
I am going to point some things out today. All I’m asking is that you consider some questions. Questions about life, our souls, our selves.
Consider this- just when we get God figured out enough that we are able to tell God- exactly what to do- like Peter did- this may be our furthest point from God. When Peter tells Jesus he doesn’t have to suffer- he’s Satan.
We don’t "figure out" our way into the kingdom of God- if this were the case we would make a kingdom of God’s values and a God in our image.
Instead we "lose our way" into the kingdom of God. We lose our way and pick up God’s way. Being in relationship with God is less about "figuring out" and more about "losing our way in." It’s more than a conscious thing- it’s a soul thing- it’s a whole body thing. Anybody who wants to follow Christ, he says, must memorize all I said and understand me perfectly- No. It doesn’t say that. Anybody who wants to follow Christ- must deny their own self- pick up his cross and follow him. We learn by following. We learn to be Christian- that is an imitator of Christ- by carrying the cross. What does it mean to carry a cross? It means your carrying around the means to your own death. Isn’t that weird. But maybe its not. Maybe if we were more real with the reality of our impending and eventual death- we would be more able to fully live in the present. Maybe we are to carry our cross- to remind us of the precious- fragile and yet brutal reality of life. The cross does not allow us to romanticize life. The cross puts our daily issues into perspective. We don’t carry it simply to garner attention or to invite pity. We do cause Jesus said.
American Christianity says Jesus went to the cross so that we don’t have to- but consider this- maybe he went to the cross so that we could also go to the cross. Maybe he died for us- so that we could see that we must die to our selfish ways in order to really love others in this life. To live the best life. Even to live a life that might be more full of suffering.
Maybe the best life to live- is the one that gives control of self over to God- so that we see life through God’s eyes- so that we love the world with God’s love. That we hurt where God hurts for His people- that we suffer in order to love others. And by doing so there is more Christ in the world- more love- more good ness, more beauty.
But I don’t think I can pull of this "best type of life." My soul just doesn’t have the capacity. The ability. My well is shallow- and the water pressure just ain’t there. The water I do have is for me and mine. I don’t see how can do life with God’s eyes. I can’t do it on my own.
Let’s take our souls into consideration. Considerations of the soul:
Your soul. Your spiritual center. Your internal drive. Your psyche. Whatever you want to call it. Science has been unable to locate it- and that’s good- because I don’t know if I want to understand my soul. I am talking of my soul as if it is separate from who I am, but a good Hebrew- like Jesus- considered the soul to be inseperable from their body- and it had its deepest roots in the gut- your soul was throughout all of you and was rooted in the deepest part of your guts. That’s the biblical idea of soul. We nowadays talk about Auras and stuff and have overspiritualized our soul- our soul is us- its our undeniable- deep in the guts- driving force and identity of our life. We all have soul- but we all don’t equally recognize or feed our soul.
On my bad or normal days I feed my soul all kinds of junk food. I remind myself of how important I think I am. Or I remind myself of how guilty I think I should feel. I keep my soul- my drive- my center- like a nice little pet. I want to keep it calm and domesticated- maybe somedays I want to keep it medicated. But for heaven’s sake- I don’t want it to be out of my control. I want to keep my soul alive- and under control.
Consider that maybe its not at all about feeding the soul, keeping it alive and under control. What if feeding our soul has actually been poisoning our well. Jesus was tempted in the desert. He was tempted to give up his drive- his soul- for food, for splendor- for riches [expound]- he did not budge- he would not let the tempter short circuit or short cut his soul
What if we were never meant to control our own soul? What if someone else controlled my soul and they told me to deny my selfish desires and to see every person as loved by God.
And where does that take us but back to this scripture.
35 For whoever wants to save (to be whole) his life (literally= psyche- soul) will lose (die, destroy) it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
Consider this- the only way to keep our soul whole- is to give up our ability to control.
What does it mean for Jesus to control your soul? I don’t know. I can only tell you that I wrestle with Him sometimes because I want my soul back- and on my weaker days- that is to say my better days- I lose my soul to him. And I see an ability to live a life full of more beauty and mercy than I ever thought possible.
Consider this: lose control of your life to Jesus. Don’t give up on life. Give it to Jesus. Consider that your most important decision each day is whether or not you will surrender control of yourself to God. You cannot earn a love that already has been freely given to you- you are loved by God- give up- lose control. You cannot make your soul something that it already is- It is not up to you to "Form yourself a Christian Soul"- no it is for you to give in - to lose your way into God and believe and rejoice that Christ is life- and wants to be your life- your soul.
Your life is God’s. Are you willing to lose your life- to give up control of your life- to carry a cross- to be open to suffering. Would that mean reading scripture during lent- praying in times of silence. Praying for your enemies. Being kind to a detestable neighbor? Looking into the world to see those in pain and see how we can bring life in the midst of death.
Be careful- following Jesus- means living a life of the cross. The way of love- is a vulnerable way- we only have the capacity to love to the degree that we are willing to suffer- to the degree that we lose our life.

Mark 2:13-17 "righteous sinners and sick saints"

[I apologize to anyone who checks this blog regularly, I am a couple of days behind]
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
I’m sure you’ve heard the story about the pastor and his wife who read a study that confirmed that most tragic deaths happen within 5 miles of home- so they announced to the church that God had called them to move.
What makes a person move? Why do we decide to move?
Here, in our story today we see Levi move from tax collecting to following this rabbi- Jesus. Why did Levi move? Was he tired of being ridiculed by fellow Jews for working for the Romans? Had he been praying for something in his life to change- for more meaning to come into his life? It was probably a combination of factors that got Levi moving- but most importantly he was invited to move. Invited to follow- by Jesus.
It was a big deal to be a disciple of a rabbi- not everyone got to do it. If you were still a student of a Rabbi by the time you were fifteen, you had passed several tests- memorized most of the Old Testament. Because Levi has a job, and a good paying job- it had likely been a long time since he had been a student of a rabbi. Who knows maybe he cut it until he was 10 or 12. But at some point he was likely told by a rabbi as most boys were, "You love God and Torah but you can no longer be my disciple."
So along comes Jesus- years later- and Levi- a good Jewish boy has a chance to be a disciple of the radical teacher.
He moves- he leaves behind a cushy job and follows Jesus.
There are others who are moving in this story. The teachers of the law are moving just close enough to Jesus to see who he is hanging out with. They are not impressed with the dinner party at Levi’s house. Jesus is eating with tax collectors and "sinners"- the word translated sinners means literally people who have missed the mark in life. The srewups- the folks with bad reputations in town. These are the folks that were following Jesus. The religious leaders- didn’t like it. Was Jesus trying to MOVE the importance of morality? Was he trying to MOVE the people into supporting him as a leader over and against the establishment- and the empire?
The religious leaders must have got just close enough to Jesus that he could hear them. "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners, they said" Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
I need to hear these words- over and over again.
Without these words as reminder it is easy for us to move from our experience of following Jesus- to a position of being relgiously guided moralists who put more effort into being against people
than they do in coming along side people and working through stuff together
When we are honest- we will all admit that we are sick- that’s why we come to church- it is a hospital for sinners- it’s why we read the scriptures- the stories- are our stories- Adam and Eve isn’t just an ancient story- it’s a living story- a story of our rebellion
I have said the worst things about other people- you know "other people" as if they are people that I am better than- as if there are people that God loves any less. Do you think that God loves somebody less because they do the wrong things or say the wrong things- or haven’t said the sinner’s prayer yet? Be careful. I have heard Christians- derail and judge- slam- insult= put down people- who they see as sinners- "our nation is in trouble because of group X"- and Jesus says- "that’s funny that’s who I came for- the folks who don’t have it all together"
So if you’re sure you have it all together- if you are so together with your moral behavior and your right relationship with God- that you have spiritual free time to kick others while they are down- Jesus has a word for you- Jesus says to you, "you don’t need me- I didn’t come for folks who have it all together. You don’t need me."
It is a dangerous place to not need Jesus
Christian faith- the primary question of the faith is not behavior- it is not about what to do that is right and what to do that is wrong. The prim of the Christian faith is identity- Who am I? Not- what must I do?
Do you believe God- when he tells you who you are? You are a loved child of God- loved despite your sicknesses and weaknesses- loved even more because of them.
Notice that once Levi knows he is loved- he does something good- he practices hospitality- he invites Jesus over and some other "sinners" and they have a party- a good thing. His identity as a loved child of God leads to good behaviors.
But the pharisees have it backwards- the tail is wagging their dog. They are doing all the right things so that they can be called the religious. They are doing behaviors in an attempt to have an identity. They are righteous and yet later Jesus calls these same folks "sons of hell"- how can you be righteous and a son of hell? If you are doing good- just to prove you are good and better than others- you don’t get it- that is the opposite of a heavenly saintly life.
A saintly life says- I need God. I am a sinner in need of God. I need God every day. And God says- "hey sinner I love you"- you are beautiful, come follow me and add beauty and goodness into my creation. And we go, secure in our identity and we do righteous things.
Only the sick can be saints. Those who consider themselves righteous are indeed in danger of hell.
You can’t come clean by being good or by saying you’re good. You are good- in that we are created in the image of God- but we are bad in our tendencies to rebel- to live in pride- to judge- to waste God’s creation.
We have a decision to make every day- especially in these days of Lent
Do we want to move following Jesus- and endanger our reputation and at times our life- by hanging out with people in the midst of their sin, trials, their failures and pain
Or do we want to move on and become experts at our religion- and give advice to people about how they too can become more like us- and in doing this we endanger our soul and any soul that we convince to be like us
This lesson today is the constant challenge of the church in general and local churches- Do we actually live it out being a place of love and hospitality- giving away all that God gives to us- Or do we become experts and powerful, religious elite.
One way leads to a life full of potential for good- a life of bringing heaven on earth- a life like Mother Theresa- St. Francis Assissi
The other way leads to a potential of self righteousness- a life of bringing hell down on others- who already have enough to worry about- this is the way of the crusades the way of the inquisition
Pascal, the great Christian thinker once wrote, "human beings never do evil so cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."
So who are we? Where do we keep our identity- in being loved children of God- forgiven and being restored day by day to do good. Our do we find our identity in our self- our good behaviors. One road leads to life the other leads to death.
Fall into the arms of our Gracious and eternal healer- Jesus Christ- whisper to Jesus all your faults your guilt your hurts- and be silent- you will hear him whisper back you’re forgiven- you’re beautiful- follow me.