John 2: 13-17 "Spring Cleaning!"
"It was almost time for the Passover Festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. There in the Temple he found men selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons, and also the moneychangers sitting at their tables. So he made a whip from cords and drove all the animals out of the Temple, both the sheep and cattle; he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins; and he ordered the men who sold the pigeons, 'Take them out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!' His disciples remembered that the scripture says, 'My devotion to your house, O God, burns in me like a fire.' " (TEV)
Jesus shows a little of that passion here. He gets "all fired up" about the abuse he finds in his Father's house. Rev. Katy recently asked our church, "What would you do if Christ came tomorrow?" Our response was to "throw a party!" Katy suggested that we might want to clean house first, suggesting the question might really be "What would CHRIST find if he came to our church tomorrow?"
Our Father's house, our temple, is where we meet God. It might be more than a building - a place, a relationship, a dream, a passion, or an experience. Regardless of the shape of our temple, if God were to enter, what would he find? (Not to mention that God enters daily.....) Hopefully he would find some positive actions and responses, but what else? What spring cleaning do we need to do to honor our God and show the value we place on his relationship? What clutter of life has gotten in our way to prevent a pure relationship with God? Clutter of over-scheduling? Clutter of priorities? Blight of mis-spoken words? Mini sins? (Is there such a thing?)
We need to do a little spring cleaning in our hearts, our lives, our churches, our communities to prepare for the party of God. Let's take our passion for our living God and get out the mops and the rags and CLEAN! I'm off to clean the kitchen! (And those who really know me, understand that cleaning is usually at the bottom of my list!)
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