IN THE TEMPLE AREA

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INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5th Sunday in Lent [c] is, “In the Temple Area.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

         

Today’s Gospel - the story of the Woman Caught in Adultery - is one of the best known stories in the Gospels. We all know - we’ve all thought - we’ve all said Jesus’ famous words: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

It triggers for some the old joke that someone throws a stone and Jesus says, “Mother!” That’s an important joke because it means that we know the Catholic teaching that Mary is without sin. It also fits the principle that a joke should have surprise - and it does - because we know Mary wouldn’t do such a thing - but we do.

It’s also good that it has been embedded in our heads not to throw stones - not to judge - because we are with sin. We’ve all made mistakes - and the older we are - the more we’ve made - and the more mistakes and sins we’ve done,  the more we should understand the little nuance in today’s gospel story. The text says, “… they went away one by one, beginning with the elders.”

The older we get, the more we look backwards. The more we look backwards, the more we see the sins and stupidities of our lives. The more we see the sins and stupidities of our past - especially the sins of omission - the broken promises and unfinished love - the more we should understand others - and stop throwing stones at them.

It’s interesting that today’s gospel from John 8:1-11 is not in most of the oldest Gospel manuscripts. This gives scholars a chance to come up with theories why not - and why it made its way into the Gospel of John. Some think it’s such a radical thought - that we dare not tell me not to throw stones at women - and we know it’s still done today - with words and rocks.

Lucky for us this story about Jesus has been preserved for us - to challenge us - to get us to read in the scriptures one of Jesus’ major insights: the reality of the inner life and inner thoughts inside our skull - and how they are behind our actions.

We don’t know what Jesus wrote on the ground that day, but we do know what John - Matthew, Mark and Luke wrote - to preserve in writing for us the sayings and stories of  and about Jesus.

THE TEMPLE

To understand today’s gospel as well as the Four Gospels - as well as the whole Bible - the Jewish and Christian Scriptures - we have to know the centrality of the temple in the life of Israel.

If you go to Israel, if you go to Jerusalem, you have to go to the Western Wall - the Wailing Wall - and you stand there and pray - and think and watch - and experience something powerful. You stand there and put notes in the cracks - a few prayers - some hopes and messages to God. It’s not part of the old Temple. It’s part of the platform on which the temple was built.

If you go to the Bible you know how important it was to have a temple - a central gathering place - to experience each other - to experience God - to experience each other as a people of God.

If we go into our own minds - into our own way of seeing and understanding life - those of us in church here today - we know how important and central it is to have a church - our local church. We live around here, in some house - in some neighborhood - and we need a Sunday place to gather and worship and be with each other and be with our Father.

I see this significantly many Friday evenings at wedding rehearsals when people stand in the back of this church for the first time. I see folks with amazed faces. I see them surprised at the beauty of  this old 1858 Gothic Church called “St. Mary’s”. It hits them down deep somewhere in their being. I sense them getting the importance of sacred places called churches - temples - synagogues - mosques - cathedrals - basilicas.

I remember driving out to St. John Neumann Church for a 12:10 weekday Mass - a few years back. It was an ordinary day. As I was getting out of my car I saw two families getting out of two different cars and heading for the church as well. I was a bit early - which is rare for me - and I said to myself, “I’ve never seen these people before. I wonder what’s up.”

So I caught up with them and said sort of carefully, “Is everything okay?”  And probably an older brother said, “Our dad is dying and we need to say a prayer.”

So there is something needy and something sacred and something central about sacred places like churches.

And when we drop away - or drop out - when we’re worried -  then when we experience these sacred landmarks  - they trigger serious and sacred and challenging thoughts.

I like to walk in the afternoon - especially through the Naval Academy - along the water. It’s good to see teams practicing and to see young people running and exercising. It makes me walk faster - to fight aging. While walking there and walking back, it has hit me a thousand times the reason for church steeples. St. Mary’s tall useless steeple - probably costing millions in the long run for upkeep and maintenance - since 1858 - with the golden colored cross on top - glittering from the sun from different angles - depending on the time of day and the place of the sun - it sends off deep unconscious thoughts and feelings of the sacred. It’s lit at night - as well - and folks have told us that the lights were out for a while - especially folks coming over the bridge down below over Spa Creek.

I’ve done a lot of preaching in a lot of places - as well as a lot of traveling - and everywhere one goes - one sees sacred places. I’ve seen beautiful churches and ugly ones - but like family members they are ours. And from time to time people gather together for the big and small moments - of life in places called “churches” and “temples”.

And when we are alone and when we are together there are a lot of things going on inside our minds. And a lot of things outside our minds trigger a lot of things going on inside our heads. And that’s one of the things we do when we see churches and holy places - and when we are in holy places.

The title of my homily is, “In the Temple Area.”

IN THE TEMPLE AREA

Today’s gospel begins, “Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.  But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.”

It’s at that moment that the scribes and the Pharisees bring the woman caught in adultery and they want to nail him and stone her.

This morning I’d like to jump to another temple - our own.

When the priest or deacon begins the gospel, when he says, “A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John", he as well as everyone in church is making a small sign of the cross with their thumb - on their forehead, their lips and their hearts. I add a fourth cross with my thumb to my hands. The idea is to have the gospel in our minds, on our lips and in our heart - and I add in our actions.

Could you make the sign of the cross with your thumb again, but just on your forehead. +

This is our temple - this is our command center - this is our sacred space.  When the brain goes, uh oh!

Today think - this is where Jesus comes - into our temple.

When we are baptized we’re anointed on our forehead - and our parents and godparents and often those around us - bless us with a tiny cross with their thumb or finger. A college student told me recently that his mom did that to him most every night  - till he went off to college - and it finally hit him what she was doing - and he was grateful.

Jesus wants to come into this temple - into this temple area. [Gesture tapping forehead.]

And if I finally get Jesus and what he was about, I finally get the inside us Jesus reality. Read today’s second reading from St. Paul to the Philippians and hear this message loud and clear. [Cf. Philippians 3: 8-14]

It’s in this temple - in this skull - in this sacred space - called our brain - this place called “me” - in our thoughts - that Jesus likes to visit.

Jesus says murder - adultery - stealing - starts in here - in our thoughts. It begins with envy and jealousy and lust and fairness stuff. This where we first start throwing stones at others. People cheat on their neighbor, family, spouse, in here way before they act it out - out there. Grouches, gripers, complainers and cynics, are not just spitting out those words and throwing those sharp edged stony words for the first time - when we hear them. They have been doing that inwardly for the longest time.

CONCLUSION

By now, I assume you’re saying, “Enough already."  I’d be saying that. By now I hope you have this Jesus within message in your temple area. Let Jesus move from the Mount of Olives or wherever he is - in tabernacles or Bibles - and let him come into your temple area today.  

* Painting on top: Christ Writes in the Dust by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Commissioned for the Methodist Collection of Modern Art