{"id":1561,"date":"2015-03-08T17:57:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T21:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2015-03-08T17:57:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T21:57:46","slug":"3rd-sunday-in-lent-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/3rd-sunday-in-lent-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"3rd Sunday in Lent, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

3rd<\/sup> Sunday in Let, Year B<\/a>
\nExodus 20:1-17
\n1 Corinthians 1:22-25
\nJohn 2:13-25
\nMarch 8, 2015<\/p>\n

We generally don\u2019t think of Jesus as getting angry but today we hear that \u201cHe made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 What made Jesus so upset?<\/p>\n

They have turned His Father\u2019s House, meaning the Temple, into a marketplace.<\/p>\n

It might have started with good intentions.\u00a0 At least, that is probably what the merchants were saying.\u00a0 They would have said they were there to provide a service to the Temple Visitors.<\/p>\n

After all, when people came to the Temple, they had to have the right type of currency to pay their Temple Tax.\u00a0 The currency the people used in everyday life would have been different so the money changers were \u201cneeded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, those who will there selling sheep and doves probably would have said they were to sell the animals to those who had come to offer sacrifice and needed the livestock.<\/p>\n

It might have<\/em> started with good intentions.\u00a0 What I have said can make some sense in human terms.\u00a0 Some might see as good wisdom.\u00a0 So, again, why did Jesus get upset?<\/p>\n

The money-changing and livestock sales had gone beyond providing a service and became a business in itself.\u00a0 Also, it did not need to happen in the Temple.\u00a0 Surely, there must have been someplace nearby that the merchants could have set up shop.<\/p>\n

Setting up in the Temple itself, the activities detracted from the real purpose of the Temple as a place to worship God.\u00a0 The First Commandments are about our relationship with God.\u00a0 Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God.\u00a0 The first three of the ten focus on loving God.<\/p>\n

The First Commandment tells us to worship God alone<\/em>.\u00a0 For the Jews, worship included offering sacrifices but it had become more about the action than real worship of the Lord.\u00a0 I bet people were spending more time in the \u201cmarketplace\u201d then they did offering real worship.\u00a0 In doing so, the marketplace became their god.<\/p>\n

The Second Commandment says not to take the Lord\u2019s name in vain<\/em>.\u00a0 On a simple level we take this to mean not to use curse words, especially not to use the Lord\u2019s name as a curse word.\u00a0 It includes that but it is to be more.\u00a0 People would take oaths in the Lord\u2019s name and then not fulfill their oath, discrediting their promise made in faith.<\/p>\n

The Third Commandment is to keep the Sabbath holy<\/em>.\u00a0 The rules about the Sabbath were very stringent against doing any work.\u00a0 Remember the stories about when people criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath because they considered it forbidden work?<\/p>\n

This part of keeping the Sabbath holy goes back to the first story of creation in the first chapter of Genesis.\u00a0 God created the world in six days and resting on the Sabbath.<\/p>\n

God did not rest simply to get away from the office.\u00a0 God did not rest from work because He was tired.\u00a0 God didn\u2019t take off a day from work to do something else.\u00a0 God rested to reflect on and appreciate what He had created.<\/p>\n

Do we need a day of physical rest?\u00a0 Sure but how many of us get?\u00a0 Sure, you have the day off from work but how many of us just fill up our day with something else?<\/p>\n

How well do we really make Sunday a Sabbath<\/em> day?<\/p>\n

Coming here for Mass is a vital part of it.\u00a0 The Church still teaches that we are to come to Sunday Mass every<\/em> week that we are healthy and the weather cooperates.\u00a0 But does what we do the rest of the day follow what we do here?<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t easy.\u00a0 Some people have to work on Sunday.\u00a0 It used to be on Sunday most of the stores were closed and there won\u2019t be sports practices or games.\u00a0 Now, lots of businesses are open on Sunday (and that means people have to work) and games and practices happen.<\/p>\n

Why the change?<\/p>\n

I think some of it is flows from fewer people comes to church and having any relationship with God.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t believe in God, then a Sabbath has no meaning.<\/p>\n

For people who do come to church, we can feel between a rock and a hard place.\u00a0 How can we keep a Sabbath, hold down a job, and participate in sports or other activities?<\/p>\n

There is no easy answer to this.\u00a0 We are in Lent right now as a time of preparation for the celebration of Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection.\u00a0 During this time, I just encourage you to think about what the Sabbath means to you and your relationship with God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3rd Sunday in Let, Year B Exodus 20:1-17 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 John 2:13-25 March 8, 2015 We generally don\u2019t think of Jesus as getting angry but today we hear that \u201cHe made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple.\u201d\u00a0 What made Jesus so upset? They have turned His Father\u2019s …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘3rd Sunday in Lent, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-pb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1562,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}