3rd Sunday in Lent: THE ONE NON-NEGOTIABLE

Scripture:   John 2:13-22 

Focus on the Word

Religion has a unique way of missing God.  People of faith can become so attached to the methodology of religious practice that they drift away for a vital relationship with God.  Doing trumps Being, Law trumps spirit, and works trump worship.  Jesus brings us back to the one non-negotiable, that God will not be boxed in, domesticated, or harnessed.  He is who He is and He will not manipulated.   

Lent is a special time of standing back and watching Jesus be Jesus.  He is on a mission for the Father and He will not let abuse of His Father’s house go unchallenged.  He will do whatever is necessary to make sure the Father’s house is never made into something it was never intended to be.  It might take a death and resurrection but never will the Father’s house not be the Father’s house.

We are a worship-formed people.   The life of our life is found in fellowship with God.  Jesus calls us never to forget who we are.  In Lent we journey forward, daily called to let our lives be what the Father would have them be.  To let faith become simply a religion is to take faith to a place it was never intended to go. True faith is drawing near the Father and living in a relationship of love.  Charles Wesley said it well:

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;

He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:

With confidence I now draw nigh,

With confidence I now draw nigh,

And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.  

Today’s Prayer

Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy and universal Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen. (William Laud 1573 – 1645)