Zeal for Your House

Most of us were first taught the Ten Commandments when we were kids, when we could still find them posted in public places, but how our culture has changed since then! Even those of us who are familiar with God’s ways sometimes have struggles in living within God’s will, and maybe feel like the larger church community no longer takes the Word of God seriously. Certainly, the Bible gives us many guidelines to help us live our lives, but we are also allowed to make our own decisions on many everyday things.

A friend of mine from work came up to me this week to share a problem she was having. She explained that after a great deal of prayer, she had put a bid on a new house. She thought it was within God’s will, but her bid was turned down. She was considering putting in another bid, but felt like she might be somehow questioning God by doing so. Thinking about it all was giving her knots in her stomach, she said. What would you have told her? Is this a situation you can’t understand, or do you think it isn’t as serious as it was to her? Or can you say you have been there, too!

The first step when someone shares a concern is not to be judgemental, especially when we are dealing with someone from a different church family, who may look at the world a little differently even if they are Christians, too. You might not think it to be a serious problem to you, but it may be causing someone else a crisis of faith. You don’t want to say anything that will make their sufffering worse.

I told her she should go ahead and put in another bid, for God may still have a plan for her and this house, we often can’t be sure until we get to the other side of a problem. What I wish I had told her, also, is that God has a plan for the seller, too, and perhaps God is taking care of them by seeking a higher selling price, even if it is at her expense. Discerning God’s will is often difficult, and sometimes it takes a long season of prayer to get to where He wants us to be. Sometimes, what we are praying for is not what God has in mind. At other times, we just have to act on faith, and wait to see what God does with our decision.

I don’t know if I would pray like she did, but I do think my friend was right to be worried, for our highest goal should be to live and act according to how God expects us to act, honoring Him with our decisions in accordance to what He has taught us in Scripture. As our Psalm for today states:

The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults. (Psalm 19:9-12)

When we think of “fearing God," we might be afraid of His anger and punishment, the “negative” things, but the word “fear” also has positive meaings, in the sense of being in awe of God’s majesty. We are to have a healthy respect for His power and authority. We fear failing to obey His statutes and commands, recognizing that faithfully obeying them is the way to success in God’s eyes. He has the words of eternal life, and we obey His teachings in order to be good and faithful servants, and enter into His rest.

We like to think that we can understand everything and put all things under our control, but God is beyond our understanding, and we struggle to live in a manner that pleases Him. We live in a world that no longer knows His ways, and find ourselves bucking societal trends in order to live according to God’s commands. We look for a sense of peace in our decisions, but sometimes we don’t find it at first.

Our Gospel passage is a good example of what was once within God’s plan, but was twisted by human greed and striving for control. When folks would come to Jerusalem to worship, they would need to exchange their money to the currency of the Temple in order to pay their tithes and to buy animals and birds to sacrifice. Often they would be people like Jesus’ parents, poor but still doing their best to follow the Law, bringing an offering on behalf of their son.

This was all originally intended to provide ceremonial cleansing for the people and the land of Israel, but by Jesus’ time had become an industry in itself, filling the pockets of unscrupulous profiteers who were only there to make money. As a sign of prophecy fulfilled, Jesus puts aside all thoughts of danger to His person and clears the marketplace, certainly drawing attention to Himself from the authorities, who also benefitted from the transactions going on there.

In this moment, what is Jesus motivated by? Is He angry because some are making money at the expense of others? Or is He angry because they are not honoring God and His house?

We don’t follow God’s precepts just to be doing them, that leads to legalism. Often, we hide our faithfulness out of fear of what others will think about us. We don’t just ask ourselves if we are doing things correctly, as if just following the letter of the Law, but we must ask if we are doing so with the proper attitude and sense of purpose. Is our heart in the right place?

We follow the Law because our faithfulness (or lack thereof) reflects back on God. We honor Him by our obedience. We dishonor Him by our disobedience. When we follow His teachings, we honor the sacrifice He made for us on the cross. We don’t do it to show that we are better than others, or to somehow earn our way into Heaven, we do it out of our awe or “fear” of God’s greatness and infinite power, and in gratitude for His infinite love for us. Sometimes we don’t know what God wants us to do, so we must know the Bible well in order to make an educated geuss, or seek out wise council from those we trust. But still, there are some things we just can’t understand. As Paul says:

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God...Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. (1st Corinthians 1:18-25)

We may not fully understand what God wants us to do, but we still must focus on the things we know He wants us to do. We are to proclaim Christ crucified, even if we don’t understand how or why it had to happen, and we certainly cannot comprehend the vastness of God’s love for us that would compel Him to do such a thing. Even if we don’t understand God’s ways fully, are we seeking to fulfill God’s commands? The Ten Commandments are pretty straight forward, but there are many other teachings that are meant to draw us closer to God’s heart, which may not be as as clear. And we must know the four Gospel books well, too, for our example is Jesus, and we must seek to model our lives after His.

And so we ask; how is our zeal for God’s House affecting us? Is it consuming us, or do we even care? Are we “consumed” but is it affecting us in a way that does not honor God? Are we more concerned about the control we have over how things are done here, or are we allowing God to have control over what happens here? Are we coming before God in fear and trembling, or are we trying to mold God into our image of Him?

We must remind ourselves that this is God’s house, but that the church is not the building, it’s the people. We are not just here to be caretakers of the building, but are called to provide a vital encounter with the divine, encouraging all who come here to draw closer to God and grow to be more like Jesus. Like Jesus, our zeal for God’s house should be a positive reflection of our love for God and our healthy fear of His power and authority. If that is not happening, this is no longer a church, just a pretty building.

This is God’s house. We must discern what He wants us to do here, for that changes over time. We are meant to worship, proclaim the Gospel, learn from Scripure, pray for each other and our world, and reach out to the lost. No church is called to just take care of those who call themselves members. As times change, and our neighborhood changes, the church must change to meet the needs of our neighbors and our world. We are here to make disciples for the transformation of our world. May our zeal for God and His Son compel us to honor God in all that we do!