March 7, 2021
Hope Lutheran Church
John 2:13-22
The Heart of Worship
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Bridge on the River Kwai is widely considered as one of the best movies ever made. The film came out in 1957. It won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It tells the story of British soldiers in World War II captured by the Japanese. They’re sent to a prisoner of war camp in what was then Burma. The living conditions are extreme. The Japanese commander orders the entire camp to help in the construction of a bridge. A battle of the wills ensues between the Japanese commander and Colonel Nicholson, the ranking officer among the British soldiers.
As the story unfolds, the bridge construction begins. But the design of the bridge is just horrible. Col. Nicholson is appalled. He thinks to himself that if this were a proper British bridge, it would put to shame the lousy Japanese bridge. He decides right then that he and his British soldiers are going to design and build a new and better bridge. Their structure will be a lasting testament to the British army and its ingenuity.
Nicholson totally commits himself to this new bridge. Meanwhile, free Allied soldiers in the vicinity are making plans to destroy the bridge. The bridge’s destruction will be a strategic blow against the Japanese forces.
At the climax of the movie, Col. Nicholson discovers dynamite planted on his precious bridge. He alerts the Japanese to the threat. As Allied forces move in to destroy the bridge, the Japanese attack them.
In the final scenes of the movie, Nicholson finally comes to his senses. He realizes just how much his objectives have strayed. He has helped the enemy! He utters, “What have I done?” In his dying breaths, he staggers towards the detonator and falls on the plunger. His beloved bridge is destroyed.
The epic story demonstrates the phenomenon of drift. Drift is a process that affects our standards or perceptions. Drift happens gradually and unconsciously. It’s so subtle that we don’t realize the changes.
Drift can affect our ethics and values. What was out of the question yesterday becomes permissible today. It can desensitize our ability to detect dangerous changes in our environment. Drift can affect our faith life, too. The focus of our worship can gradually veer towards a new center.
Theologian Paul Tillich defined faith as our ultimate concern. Everyone has something or someone they hold as the most important thing or being. Tillich wrote, “Whatever concerns a man ultimately becomes god for him.” We all hold something as our ultimate concern. As people of faith, trust and devotion to God is our ultimate concern.
Israel had an ultimate concern. It was their relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Their devotion to God was the heart and center of their universe. It formed their identity. That worship found its highest expression in the Jerusalem temple. This was the central focus of their religious life.
But something had drifted. The heart of their worship, their ultimate concern, had gradually drifted from its holy center. The mechanics of their worship became more important that the object of their worship.
It’s a common trap for priestly types. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes of our worship! Did the soloist arrive? Do we have enough communion cups? Why does the pulpit mike sound tinny? Oh, no! We ran out of bulletins! Quick, make some more!
The same can be true of a worshiping congregation. We come to church and the first thing we do is check the bulletin for typos. We rate the service on how much we like the hymns. How was the choir’s anthem? Oh, the altos were a little flat! During the sermon we’re thinking about how we can top off our morning with a good brunch. Where should we go today?
We can become completely engrossed in the details of our worship service. The mechanics are so all-encompassing that we overlook the main thing, our adoration of God.
Back to Israel’s temple worship. When Jesus arrives at the temple, he’s overwhelmed by the spiritual drift he sees. Worship at the temple was a well-oiled machine. It was complicated and delicately balanced.
1) First of all, it was highly coordinated. People were coming from afar to worship. They didn’t necessarily want to transport a sacrificial animal with them all the way from their home. So established vendors brought animals to the temple area for the worshiping public. These animals were without blemish and ritually clean. Likewise, money changers were there so that coins with a human image on them could be exchanged into currency without images.
But all of these conveniences came at a price. Like movie concessions, they were expensive. Worshipers had to accept the price gouging. It was a racket at the expense of humble worshipers. And with it, there was a drift in Israel’s high standard of justice.
2) Secondly, Israel’s worship was highly political. Roman authoritarians and soldiers overlooked every aspect of Israel’s temple worship. Rome knew that if they kept a heavy hand on the temple practices, Israel would mind their P’s and Q’s. The temple leadership wanted to maintain an atmosphere of good order. They didn’t want any rabble rousers upsetting their practices. They did what they had to do to please their Roman overseers.
Our worship and mission can be affected by politicizing, too. It might involve relative peripheral and trivial matters, like which banners should be displayed during Advent. But in my experience, the deeper effects tend to occur over issues of justice. The Bible has a lot to say about matters of justice. God called Israel to a very high ethical standard. The second table of the commandments all deal with how we treat our neighbor. The prophet Amos called to Israel:
“Let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
However, following the mighty river of justice leads the community of faith into very choppy waters. It leads us to address the themes of systemic racism in our nation, and why women were paid at just 81 cents to the dollar compared to men last year. The flowing streams of righteousness lead us to consider our stewardship of the planet, how we utilize its resources and how we care for its health and sustainability. It’s much easier to focus on personal holiness and leave the debate of justice to another day. But in avoiding the rapids of justice and steering towards the untroubled waters of holiness, we drift from the totality of God’s calling.
3) Thirdly, Israel’s worship was highly admired. Herod the Great had rebuilt the temple mount area. The temple itself was nothing short of breathtaking. It was a sight to behold. The foundations of that temple area still remain today. The size of some of the cut stones hauled into the foundation walls are staggeringly huge.
Once, when Jesus and his disciples were leaving the temple, his disciples pointed out the massive stones. “Look, Rabbi! Look at these massive stones! Look at the magnificent buildings!” They were taken in by the beauty and magnitude of the temple.
There was a lot of pride involved in the temple. And there’s danger in pride. Can the source of your pride become your ultimate concern?
Jesus arrives at the temple and he’s greatly disturbed by what he finds. Israel’s worship of God had drifted. The true light of their worship had been eclipsed by other false beacons. Jesus wants their ultimate concern to be the God of Israel. He wastes no time in realigning the heart of their worship.
But people don’t like challenges to their ultimate concern, whatever it may be: addiction, ego, possessiveness, control. We’re very protective of the think we hold most dear.
The worship leaders at the temple challenge Jesus. They demand Jesus give them a sign of his authority. And Jesus obliges them. “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.”
But the temple he referred to wasn’t the one built of stone. It was the true place where God intersects with humanity. It was Jesus himself. Jesus was pointing to the true heart of our worship: it’s Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Friends, the heart of our worship is right there in Jesus. He is the builder of our temple, he is our Holy of Holies. Our entry into the presence of God has been established through Jesus’ cross and resurrection.
There on the cross he constructed the bridge to span from our drifting, sinful realm to the righteousness of God. His cross is our bridge. It carries us from this world of despair and death to resurrection life. In his death, we are a new creation.
That is the heart of our worship, simply Jesus and his redeeming power to make all things new. Whenever and where ever anything causes us to drift from this center of grace, it’s time for a good cleansing. May the resurrected Christ come and shake us up! Change my heart, Lord! Make it ever true.
