Making sense of it all

Readings: John 2:13-22, 1 Cor 1:18-25

Sermon:

· Sometimes things just don’t make sense.

“Well, sometimes my life just don't make sense at all When the mountains look so big, And my faith just seems so small”

· Quote on the screen comes from a song called “Hold me Jesus” by an American songwriter called Rich Mullins.

o Talented, caring, lived an authentic life of humility and simplicity.

o Then, one day when he was just right about my age, he and a friend were driving to a charity concert where he was due to perform, they had a car accident, and Rich Mullins died.

o There was no rhyme nor reason to it. No greater plan.

o He was a faithful, gifted person, with a strong relationship with Jesus Christ, and he was taken from us too soon.

It doesn’t make any sense.

· This is not an isolated event.

Happens all around us.

A year after I first came across this quote, my own brother died in a shockingly similar way. No rhyme nor reason

In the last week in our nation we’ve had earthquakes, tsunami, and a thwarted terrorist attack, all while we’ve been dealing with a COVID outbreak in Auckland.

It’s hard to make sense of it all.

The cleansing of the Temple

o Something like this is happening in today’s Gospel reading from John

o Story of the cleansing of the temple occurs in all four Gospels –surprisingly few stories do

o At the end of the other gospels, but it has been injected at the very start of John’s Gospel

o “Tear this temple down, and I will raise it again in three days.”

o The crucifixion is thrust before us. A shock

o Is only understood by the disciples in hindsight

o Raw and jarring. Reflects something of the heartache & confusion that his disciples must have felt as the events of Easter overtook them

· There are two things I know about the cross

o On the cross Jesus changed my life forever. He saved me. He died for my sins, and he rose again to give me the hope of eternal life with him.

o And I don’t even begin to pretend to be able to make sense of how that works.

o Of course, that’s not totally true. There are hints in the scriptures, hints in Jesus’ own words, there are hints in the wisdom of the church through the ages.

But still, There is a profound mystery to the cross.

· What do we do when things no longer make sense?

o We are grown and taught and conditioned to think that we can understand it all. Our entire society works on the assumption that we can gain intellectual mastery over the universe. That somehow, it all makes sense. But we can’t. It doesn’t.

Sometimes don’t make any sense. At least not until you look at them with the 20/20 power of hindsight.

Sometimes things don’t ever make any sense at all. They’re just tragic and broken and wrong.

o On a universal scale we can cope with that. Not many of us expect to be able to grasp life the universe and everything, and yet when the vast and unpredictable universe collides with our small, precious, individual lives, then we are shaken to the core.

When something terrible happens to us, or to someone that we love, we have a deep-seated need to know “Why?”

o We have a deep seated need to make sense of it all, and when we can’t, we can very easily fall into hopelessness.

That’s how we get conspiracy theories, by the way. The world gets too big, too crazy, and our brains draw lines between dots that aren’t really connected. We’re looking for some sense of order, we’re looking for someone to blame for when our structured, ordered world no longer makes sense to us.

· There is so much mystery, so much that we do not comprehend and cannot explain.

Where can we turn when our lives stop making sense?

John thrusts the cleansing of the temple and Jesus’ prophecy of destruction and redemption right in our faces, right at the start of his gospel.

It’s dramatic, it’s shocking, and even his closest disciples couldn’t make sense of it at the time.

It’s only later, after the crucifixion and resurrection, that the horrible and wonderful truth of Jesus’ words is made plain.

Through the cross, the body of Jesus has been destroyed and rebuilt. Through the cross, the Temple of the Holy Spirit - our bodies and our lives, have been cleansed and made new.

Stumbling Blocks and Foolishness

o Stumbling block to the Jews – curse of crucifixion

o Foolishness to the greeks – nonsensical that the divine could die

o We have a bit ot both of these, I think, in our reactions to the cross

§ Like the Jews, we find it hard to talk about the cross, it seems barbaric, outdated. How can we talk about this as the cornerstone of our salvation?

§ Like the greeks, our rational minds say “surely, God could find another way. Something that makes a little more sense.”

· And yet, here we are. Confused by the cross, and yet, somehow, hopeful…

·

· We find ourselves lost and confused, and we’re searching for a way through.

o But contrary to popular opinion, making sense is not the opposite of confusion.

o The opposite of confusion is faith.

o When we are held by faith, then we can relax.

o When we are held by faith we experience peace that passes all understanding. Peace that the world cannot give.

o Peace that is the gift of God

· I’m not saying that making sense is a bad thing. I’m not encouraging you all to abandon the power of reason. But I am saying that making sense, that understanding what is happening will not save us.

· When our boys were little we went with friends to the thermal pools at Waihi Beach. The water was deep and a little murky. I remember that Oliver was terrified of being out of his depth in the water, and he was clinging on to me for dear life.

o We were trying to increase his confidence in the water, and so I had to pry his little fingers off my arms and float him a metre or so to Andrea, and from Andrea back to me, and from me to our friend, and so on around the circle.

o Once he was able to let go of his fear, and trust the loving arms that held him, he was no longer afraid of how deep those waters might be. Instead he was filled with joy, and half a lifetime later he still remembers being a torpedo at Waihi

· This is the difference that faith makes.

o It does not change our circumstances, but as we come to know that we are held in love, we are transformed

o This is the power of the cross for us who are being saved. This is the hope and encouragement that Paul offered to the church in Corinth as their faith was shaken by stumbling blocks and doubts.

· There is a senselessness to the tragic events that all too often shape our lives. But there is also a faithfulness to be found in Jesus that will hold us in his loving arms when we need something or someone to cling to.

o In Jesus, we can be free

o In Jesus, we are being transformed from the inside out

· Jesus had to empty himself in order to embrace us. In the same way, we need to let go of our need to make sense of it all, if we are to encounter Jesus on the cross, to experience the freedom that he offers us.

· Rich Mullins died a tragic, senseless death. But there was so much more to his life than that. He lived in simplicity and humility. He broke bread with strangers and treated his enemies with compassion. His life was transformed by his faith in Jesus, and by Jesus’ faithfulness.

o His death was not the full stop, the sudden end to a life well lived. In Jesus we have the hope that life will go on in eternity with him.

· Our understanding of the world is Incomplete.

o There is still death, but in the end there will be new life in Christ, breathed into us through the Holy Spirit.

o The message of the cross, God’s weak and foolish acceptance of the whole world’s sins, carries the incompleteness and brokenness of our understanding into the wholeness of the resurrection.

· John’s Gospel has an unusual structure that is deliberately designed to help us focus on what is really important.

o Begins with a creation-wide view of Jesus at the centre

o Follows with the Baptism of John and the calling of the disciples

o On the third day Jesus and his mother attend the wedding at Cana, where Jesus, sacramentally, turns water into wine.

o Straight after that story, Jesus cleanses the temple and foreshadows the cross.

o In a way, this is a mirror of our own faith that begins with Jesus, crucified and cleansed, Jesus risen and poured out for us, Jesus calling us and anointing us in baptism, calling us to join him in the faith that puts stars into the sky and brings peace to our troubled lives.

Whatever senselessness the world throws your way, the love, life, death and resurrection of Jesus will make a way through.

For you.

For me.

For all of us.

Amen.