Glorious Things

John 2:13-22; Psalm 19
March 4, 2018
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL
Christina Berry


The event described in our gospel reading appears in all four gospels. The scene is known as “Jesus Cleansing the Temple.” In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, this event takes place right after Jesus enters Jerusalem in the last week of his life. In them, this event is the last straw, prompting the arrest of Jesus. In John’s gospel, Jesus cleanses the temple right after his first sign, the miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana. Let’s listen for God’s word to us in John 2:13-22:

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. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves,
"Take these things out of here!
Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"
His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will 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 three days I will raise it up."
The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction
for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 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.

Today’s Psalm, number 19, was described by CS Lewis as the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.[1] The Psalmist celebrates the beauty of creation as it speaks of God’s glory, and of the beauty of God’s law. I encourage you to read this Psalm throughout this week in its entirety. For today, let’s sing Psalm 19.

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Glory to God, Whose Goodness Shines on Me

Anna adored her little son. She was always with her boy, and she had a great influence on him. When her boy was big enough, Anna began to take him for walks in the meadows and fields, teaching him about the world around him. She encouraged his curiosity and his eager questions. She taught him what she knew of nature: the seasons, the plants and animals, and the sky.

Anna was a Pietist, and like many of her time, attended Sunday worship before heading out for a Sunday afternoon walk. In 18th century Prussia, such walks were as much spiritual as physical. So it was that her little boy, when he grew up, wrote these words that echo the 19th Psalm, words that were later etched upon his tombstone:

“Two things fill the mind with ever new
and increasing admiration and awe,
the more often and steadily we reflect upon them:
the starry heavens above ...
and the moral law within ...”

There is hardly a better summary of Psalm 19 than those words penned by Anna’s son, Immanuel Kant in his master work, Critique of Practical Reason.[2] Kant understood that we can know truth through beauty AND reason. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork. What a glorious declaration they make.

The sun emerges every morning like a jubilant bridegroom and makes its way across the sky, a silent witness to God’s glory. “Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.” the Psalmist says. The night speaks in silence of the beauty of God. The glittering stars sing for joy of God’s glory. But “there is no speech…their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”

The world witnesses to us of the beauty and glory of God.
The word witnesses to us the purity and joy of God’s laws.
Those words are sweeter than honey, more precious than gold.
The laws and commandments of God are beneficial to humans,
reviving us, making us wise, bringing us joy!

While Kant struggled with the relationship between reason and experience, the poet who gave us Psalm 19 had no such difficulty. Both inform us and delight us, the Psalmist seems to say. Or perhaps, as another poet echoed centuries later,

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."[3]

Such a glorious thing – the beauty of God in both nature and the law!
Such elegant and beautiful expressions!
It sounds like just the thing until we remember that we live in a world where money changers are in the temple, and where those whose positions of power and authority can trump up charges against someone whom they fear and resent and have him publicly crucified.

Beauty is God’s truth, and God’s truth is beautiful, but that’s not our daily reality. There may not be actual money changers in our place of worship but we, like Jesus in his time, live in a broken world: where violence pervades our daily lives;
where deceit is the norm and indecency is glossed over;
where commerce and greed have become the golden calves;
where the needy and the stranger are dehumanized;
where the planet is trashed and climate science disregarded;
where love of God and love of neighbor are a distant dream, or a joke.

And yet we are called to lives that bring glory to God. Our shorter catechism, once memorized by every Presbyterian youth, begins by asking “What is the chief end of human beings?” and the answer is that our chief end, our reason for being, is to “glorify God and enjoy God forever.” But we are faltering and finite beings. Our sin is not an act, but a condition – we cannot not sin – we can’t be alive and not break God’s law.

What sort of glory can we give to God when we are so frail,
when that imprint of God’s glory seems so faint upon our world?

Obviously, this is not going to be accomplished simply by us being good.
Obeying the rules has value, but it hardly merits being called “glorious!”

The good news, of course, is contained and revealed in Jesus himself. When those around him asked for a sign, his answer demonstrated a new reality. They had always believed that the temple was a place, a building. It was the location where God’s people met God. Now, Jesus reveals that God’s people can meet God in human form – in him.

Now in Jesus, God defeats death and despair.
Jesus comes to teach us how to live in ways that bring glory to God –
not through our perfect behavior,
but through our delight in one another,
in this beautiful world,
in learning, and loving.

Jesus comes to fulfill God’s law
by lifting up the great commandment,
on which hang all the law and prophets.
Jesus comes in human form, offering us his very self
and making us the body of Christ.
He calls us in and sends us out –
not to be perfect people, but to be loving people,
who speak truth to power,
who love God’s law,
and who extend God’s grace to all people,
in the form of hospitality, welcome, ministry, and mercy.
Our very lives are in him, as his body.

What a prayer to offer to God – that we might glorify God
through obedience to that greatest commandment:
to love God with our whole selves, and to love others fully.

We might then come near to glorifying God
and enjoying God forever!

Our prayers, whether with words or in silence,
express our ever new and increasing admiration and awe,
the more often and steadily we reflect upon
the starry heavens above ... and the moral law within.

So we can pray along with the Psalmist, delighting in God’s law:
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
Amen.







[1] Lewis, C. S. Reflections on the Psalms (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1958) 63

[2] Schönfeld, Martin and Thompson, Michael, "Kant's Philosophical Development", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/kant-development/ Accessed 3/3/18

[3] Keats, John. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” accessed 3/3/18 at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn