NOW THE TABLES ARE TURNED

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

March 23, 2003

Text: “He…overturned their tables.” (John 2:15)

First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

You couldn’t ask for a more appropriate scripture reading this morning than Jesus’ overturning the tables. The mood was a festive one. Every year pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem for the festivals, and this one was the festival of Passover. All of the four gospels mention the festival of Passover, but the three earlier gospels put it at the end of Jesus’ ministry, whereas John puts it at the beginning. John’s making a point! Jesus’ just come from the marriage of Cana where he turns the water into wine. There’s going to be new life in Jesus and the marriage is a sign of that new life. John also wants to show that that new life is going to pose a threat to the existing order. And that’s where this text becomes so perfect for what’s happening today.

Think about all the tables that have been overturned just this week alone. We’ve gone to war with Iraq and overturned the tables of the families that are effected. Daily we’ve heard interviews about sons and daughters who are now in harm’s way, whereas a year ago they were going about their business as husbands, wives, teachers, construction workers or whatever.

The tables of our own sense of homeland security have been overturned. Everyone’s told to have a contingency plan of some kind. I was at a meeting of Presbytery the other day and all around the table people were talking about where they’re going if something happens in Washington, New York or even Baltimore. They’re going to the mountains, the Eastern Shore or to the Midwest. They’ve got their cars packed with enough water for three days, a first-aid kit, prepared food they can eat along the way, sleeping bags in case they have to camp out for a night or two, flashlights, a portable radio and some even have gas masks!

People’s sense of well being has been overturned. People are anxious about the future, even about the present. Today, when we baptized Michael, we look at the children of the world and wonder what’s in store for them. Many of us can look back on a life of relative peace. Sure, there were wars, but this war is different. Someone remarked on the difference between this war in Iraq and Desert Storm. During Desert Storm, we watched the action on CNN, but the war was fought far away. We had never been attacked in the United States of America, even Pearl Harbor was a military installation, far across the Pacific from our shores. War was something that was fought elsewhere. That all changed with 9/11. One of the editorials this past week wrote about how Israel won the war in 1967, but lost their sense of security. Many people feel the same could happen here. We hope the war in Iraq will soon be over, but the aftermath may continue for years to come.

The tables of our state’s fiscal stability have been overturned. Now we are going to have slot machines at the racetracks. I was on the school board in New Jersey when we were debating whether or not to put gambling in Atlantic City. We heard the same arguments then as we have been hearing now. How gambling will generate so much money and it will be earmarked for education, for senior citizens’ health care, for much needed infrastructure. Today, New Jersey is no better off than they were back in the 1980’s. The vote by the Senate is just the beginning. Soon, there will be casinos in the inner harbor, in Rocky Gap State Park and on the Eastern Shore. It’s just a matter of time, and in the meantime, people’s lives will not be the healthier for all of that money that is sure to come in.

Some people are saying these events are the beginning of God’s judgement upon us. They say that the American people have become self-centered and self-righteous. They have put their priorities in the wrong place. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said this past week that the United States is setting a bad example on how to use its power. People like to look at John’s gospel lesson this morning as justification that Jesus had a temper and could get very angry with the people.

But the gospel lesson doesn’t let us stop there. Sure, Jesus was angry; Jesus wanted to make a point, but once the point was made Jesus moved on. What John wanted to show by putting the Temple cleansing at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry is that things will be different. The marriage of Cana showed how in Jesus there would be new life. The Temple cleansing was necessary to get on with that new life.

It does no good to bemoan how things used to be and how now the tables are turned. It does no good to see current events as God’s judgement upon us. What John does want us to do and what Jesus expects us to do is live the new life he came to establish. Later in John’s gospel we get a clue about what we’re to do with that new life. “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. Were it not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.” Stop there! That’s not a pledge for some time in the far off future. That’s a promise that Christ makes for the future so that we can live in its assurance today. As bad as events may seem to be, with families separated from one another, homeland security at high alert, a sense of personal anxiety, troubling fiscal times, Jesus promises us that God will never forsake us. “Let your hearts not be troubled and neither let them be afraid!”

John continues. “But Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?’ Jesus replied: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me.’” Stop again! That’s where we have to keep our focus. In the midst of all the chaos that we see going on all around us, God calls us to keep our eyes focussed on the Christ who will show us the way. Christ will be with our troops and their families. Christ will be with us as our homeland security. Christ is able to allay our anxieties about the future. Christ will help us to put our priorities in order, even in the midst of economic uncertainty.

And, as if to strengthen Jesus as the way, the truth and the life, John continues, “These things I have spoken to you while I’m still with you, but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I’ve said to you.” Stop a third time! What that says to us is that as of this moment we don’t know what the future will bring. We are scared and unsure. But God does know the future and the future is in God’s hands. In the meantime, God promises to send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter to guide us. We can put our trust in that Spirit to help us along the way to untangle the mess we’re in, to upright some of the tables and to give our lives some semblance of order.

We can trust in that Spirit because as John concludes. “And now peace I give you, my peace I leave with you, not as the world gives do I give it unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled and neither let them be afraid.” And there it is, the new life Jesus initiated with the marriage of Cana and which he continued with the cleansing of the Temple. That’s why we can’t stop with the tables overturned. There’s more to life than overturned tables. There’s the life that God promises and delivers to all who believe, and that life will be a life of peace, albeit not as the world gives, but peace that will let not our hearts be troubled, nor let them be afraid!

Thanks be to God,

Amen