Sermons from the East End

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 00:00

I'm the Reverend Breanne Swan, and this is Sermons from the East End for Tuesday, March 5, 2024. It is the 3rd Sunday of Lent already. Can you believe it? Today, our reflection is one that is very much geared specifically to the East End United Community. It speaks especially to our context in this time and space with a very well known story.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 00:43

Jesus freaking out as he reaches the temple, driving up the money changers and the animals. The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 01:25

He also poured out the coins of

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 01:27

the money changers and overturned their tables.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 01:30

He told those who were selling the doves, take these things out of here. Stop making my father's house a marketplace.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 01:40

His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume consume me. The Jews then said to him, what sign can you show us for doing this? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up. Gajeev then said, this temple has been under construction for 46 years, and you will raise it up in 3 days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 02:24

After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. The story of Jesus entering the temple. It's an important story. We know that it is an important story because every gospel writer has their own version of it, And they are remarkably similar. In the Synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this story happens after Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 03:10

The events we commemorate on Palm Sunday. In Mark, this is the event that convinces the religious leadership that Jesus needs to be stopped once and for all. But in John, which is where we are today, this event happens at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. There will be at least one more Passover for Jesus in Jerusalem. This is an important story, but it can be an uncomfortable story.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 03:44

We don't often like our Jesus all angry and yell y, crashing around, violently throwing tables and coins scattering everywhere. Jesus uses a whip, a whip to drive out all the animals, screaming, stop making my Father's house a market place. And I think it can be an uncomfortable story for this congregation in particular. East End United Regional Ministry has 2 large, beautiful buildings. Our Glen Rhodes campus is leased 100% to the city of Toronto, and we are allowed 20% of the time and space for our own church activities.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 04:31

The Eastminster campus is rented out to dozens and dozens of groups throughout the year, From professional wrestling, to queer raves, to toddler soccer, to Scottish country dancing, to film shoots, and yes, even commercial stores. In fact, during worship, there is a commercial store operating just above us in the chapel. I can see their wares of vintage clothing and accessories as I look up to the balcony from my place at the lectern. And based on the theology so many of us have been taught over the years, having a store operating during this time of worship is, it's kind of offensive. Jesus seems pretty clear about the separation of commerce and worship.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 05:29

It feels very much like we are breaking one of the commandments, like we are participating in a thou shalt not. And so, I wonder, what would Jesus say? What would Jesus say if he arrived at the Eastminster Campus, and saw the mannequins and pajamas some of us pass by to get into the sanctuary from Danforth Avenue? Would he march up the stairs and start overturning the tables of 19 eighties costume jewelry? To be clear, there was nothing about the sight of money changers and dove merchants that would have been a surprise for Jesus.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 06:18

For those offering sacrifice, it's not so easy to travel long distances with animals. And paying one's temple tax couldn't be done with Roman currency. We talked a little bit about this at the end of October. There were to be no graven images in the Temple. And that included Caesar's face.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 06:41

So the people needed to exchange their Roman currency for something like tokens. This was just the way things worked. Jesus was basically encountering the status quo. And yet, He blows up. Because of its mass accumulation of wealth, the Temple became something like a bank or a broker for the people of Jerusalem, especially the ruling elite.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 07:13

Its economic power would have been well utilized by the ruling classes. The Temple was the center of Jewish political power. More like the Middle Ages Vatican than simply a very, very large church. The High Priest was a major political figure, often allied with the Romans or even set up by them. The Sanhedrin, the court who will facilitate Jesus's trial, they met in the Temple.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 07:46

Political leaders, both the Romans and their surrogate kings, would have known that having an inn with the temple was beneficial for both sides of the leadership. And all of this was taking place against the backdrop of occupation and especially disaster for the poor people of Judah, including those from Jesus' native Galilee. Many of them were living at subsistence level, barely able to afford the necessities of life. It is interesting to me that this angry Jesus isn't just randomly upending all of the tables in the court, a la Jesus Christ Superstar. Jesus targets the money changers.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 08:31

As I mentioned earlier, every gospel writer tells this story in some form or another. In John we have cattle and sheep in Mark we only really get to hear about the doves. There certainly would have been other animals on offer in the outer courts of the Temple, but here Jesus targets the money changers and drives all of the animals out of the Temple. The price of exchanging Roman coins for Temple tokens would have been an enormous cost to the Jewish people. Even buying doves, the cheapest sacrificial option would have been a burden for those who were barely able to feed their Families.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 09:15

But this was what was required to be part of the community. This was the status quo. However, despite what Christians have tried to do to him, Jesus was never about maintaining the status quo. And just as a side note, we also need to remember that the Gospel authors were writing for communities in conflict with the Jewish establishment of their era, which adds to painting the leadership of the Temple in an especially bad light. This is one of those texts which has been used over the years to support antisemitic and anti Judaic rhetoric and violence, especially in the Gospel of John.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 10:01

So it feels really, really important for me to say this is not a text about specifically Jewish leadership being corrupt. It is a text about powerful establishment exploiting the vulnerable and creating barriers for the people to access God, sacred space and community. I am a customer of Dot and B, the clothing store in the chapel upstairs at Eastminster. There have been a few times I've run up there with a clothing emergency. Like, I've realized I'm speaking at Shabbat with the Danforth Jewish Circle, but I'm dressed for out of the cold.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 10:49

And Alison, the owner, has always helped me out. Dot and B sells beautiful pre loved, pre worn vintage clothing at extremely affordable prices. I've suggested the store to a number of women who didn't have a lot of money for clothes, but had job interviews coming up and needed something really nice to wear. And almost everything in the store is recycled. The labels are made from cut up pieces of cardboard, boots are stuffed with old shoulder pads that have been removed from blazers, even the dressing rooms have been created with reclaimed PVC pipe.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 11:30

It's a beautiful little store, living out so many of the values that East End United shares. Care for community with its offering access to high quality clothing at affordable prices. Care for the earth with keeping clothing out of landfills and the use of recycled furnishings. Care for people with the rejection of fast fashion practices, which can only happen on the backs of impoverished workers making pennies for their labor. And unlike the money changers and the sellers of animals, there is no expectation that one needs to purchase a pair of pants before entering the worship space.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 12:23

There is no price of admission here. Dot and B doesn't create a barrier for our connection to the divine. If anything, I think it demonstrates a way in which a market and commerce which are inescapable in the world we live in, can happen ethically and communally, which in and of itself challenges the status quo. In our postmodern world, it is easy for us to forget, or at least feel removed, from how and where the Jesus Movement originated. It was a movement rooted in oppression and both the submission and lack of submission to imperial powers.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 13:14

It was dismissed as a religion for women and poor people. Christians do an incredible disservice to our sacred texts if we do not read them through the lens of a people who were at best ill treated, and at worst enslaved. We also do an incredible disservice to these texts if we do not acknowledge that where we came from, a faith born in times of persecution, is not where we are now. This is not to say that there aren't people who identify as Christian who are discriminated against. But in our North American context, Christianity as a religion has traditionally been the faith of the majority, and certainly the identified faith of those exercising secular political power.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 14:11

Christianity sleeps within the bed of empire. Except, the umbrella of Christian is pretty large. The pope is a Christian. Martin Luther King was a Christian. Men who wear hoods and burn crosses are Christians.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 14:35

Sister Helen Prejean is a Christian. So is Desmond Tutu. And Donald Trump. And a lot of people who support him at rallies, which are then covered by the media. Westborough Baptist Church is filled with Christians.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 14:54

It's a problem with the word Christian being used as a noun and not as an adjective. This is the context, then and now, and it is important, very important. But I'm not sure it is the whole point or even the most important point. The exploitation that initiates Jesus' temper tantrum is real, but it's the effect, the separating of those seeking communion with the divine, that I believe has Jesus all fired up. Jesus turns over the tables of coins and drives out the animals.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 15:35

The coins and the animals, but not the people. Not the people, even the people who were participating in the unfair trading of money and sacrifice. Because ultimately, it is reconciliation with God which is Jesus' core message. The anger comes from those placing up barriers to God. But Jesus does not create more barriers himself.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 16:05

Even with those he is angry at, they are not excluded. If sin is simply anything that separates us from God, and that is generally how I think about sin, simply anything that separates us from the divine. If that's the case, then yes, the commerce of money changing and animal selling in the outer courts of the temple was sinful. But, and I say this delicately, so long as our core mission in this congregation is to serve God, and therefore serve God's people, because it's impossible to love God and not love their creation, if that remains our core mission, then offering space to stores like Dot and B, which does everything they can to function within the same core values of care that East End United holds. Even if they are operating on a Sunday morning, I am okay with that.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 17:15

I think it is Christian. Christian as an adjective, not a noun. And it's not like I have any kind of special in with Jesus, but I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure he'd be okay with this store too. And maybe even purchase a pair of sandals for all that walking he's about to do as he continues on his journey. May it be so.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 17:52

Amen.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 22:02

East End United Regional Ministry is committed to supporting our neighbors throughout the East End of Toronto. We run a weekly food bank market out of our Glenwolds campus on Gerrard Street, as well as out of the cold from our East Minster campus on Danforth Avenue. We actively support refugees and asylum seekers, and are public, intentional, and explicit of our affirmation and advocacy for 2 spirited and LGBTQIA plus peoples. We gather for worship on-site and online Sunday mornings at our Eastminster campus, and Thursday evenings at our Glen Robes campus. We are a community working to figure out how to embody the words of Cornel West, who said, Justice is what love looks like in public.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 22:54

We don't always get it right, but we are committed to working for progress even as we acknowledge that we are a work in progress. If any of this sounds interesting, we would love to meet you. Feel free to send me, reverend Breanne, an email, b swan, b swan@eastendunited.ca. I would love to connect over coffee, either in person or online.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 23:37

On the Money Changers, from Jesus, Son of Man by Khalil Gibran.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 23:52

I was a stranger in Jerusalem. I had come to the holy city to behold the great temple and to sacrifice upon the altar for my wife had given twin sons to my tribe. And after I had made my offering, I stood in the portico of the temple looking down upon the money changers and those who sold doves for sacrifice, and listening to the great noise in the court. And as I stood there came of a sudden a man in the midst of the money changers and those who sold Doug's. He was a man of majesty, and he came swiftly.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 24:35

In his hand he held a rope of goat's hide, and he began to overturn the tables of the money changers, and to beat the peddlers of birds with the rope. And I heard him saying with a loud voice, render these birds unto the sky which is their nest. Men and women fled from before his face, and he moved amongst them as the whirling wind moves on the sad hills.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 25:07

All this came to pass in but a moment,

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 25:11

and then the court of the temple was emptied of the money changers. Only the man stood there alone, and his followers stood at a distance. Then I turned my face and I saw another man in the portico of the temple, and I walked towards him and said, sir, who is this man who stands alone even like another temple? And he answered me, this is Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet who has appeared of late in Galilee. Here in Jerusalem, all men hate him.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 25:56

And I said, my heart was strong enough to be with his whip, and yielding enough to be at his feet. And Jesus turned towards his followers who were awaiting him, But before he reached them, 3 of the temple doves flew back, and one alighted upon his left shoulder, and the other 2 at his feet. And he touched each one tenderly. Then he walked on, and there were leagues in every step of his steps. Now tell me, what power had he to attack and disperse hundreds of men and women without opposition?

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 26:54

I was told that they all hate him, yet no one stood before him on that day. Had he plucked out the fangs of hate on his way to the court of the temple? Thank you for listening to this week's sermon. We will be taking a week off because next week, March 10th, is our Music Sunday at our Sunday service. So until we come back, take care of yourselves and each other.

Rev. Bri-anne Swan: 27:48

We'll see you soon. East End United Regional Ministry is an affirming community of faith within The United Church of Canada. You can learn more about our community, including our many outreach programs, by going to www.eastandunited.