RIDDING OUT

'Ridding out' is what my great grandmother called Spring cleaning.  The process would begin about this time of year, once the snow had gone and theweather turned milder.  Everyone in the family was marshaled and the riddingout began.  Room by room, first all pictures were taken down from   thewalls.  The furniture was moved to the shop to be polished or repaired and refinishedif needed.  The rugs were taken up and hung out on the line where the kids took a wire rug beater with a wooden handle and beat the rugs until not a speck of dust came out of them.  This was great fun.

Meanwhile the ceilings were dusted with feather dusters on long broom handles, or the brooms were covered with rags for the job.  Then the walls were washed down.  Grandmother would rather sternly direct the process.  "Top to bottom!"  "Top to bottom!  And catch those drips!"  Then the floors were washed and the boys would sand the scraped parts where chairs may have gouged the fir floors.  Then they were mopped again, and waxed.  And this was no spray wax out of a can!  This wax came in a hard cake and hand to be scooped out of the can with a knife.  Then came the backbreaking rubbing of each board- with the grain, until the entire floor was shining.

The kitchen cabinets were emptied and cleaned.  New shelf paper installed.  Each dish and glass was washed, silverware polished.  Pots got the steel wool treatment.  The cook stove got a new coat of black. 

The process took a week or more.  But oh!  The satisfaction of a brand spanking clean house!

The Gospel lectionary for this Sunday of Lent is John 2:13-22

Jesus Clears the Temple Courts¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”^[c]

Jesus quotes Psalm 69:9 It is worth reading the entire Psalm to put Jesus' words in context. 

This has always been for me a shocking picture of Jesus, whip in hand, driving all from the temple courts, animals for sale for sacrifice, people selling these animals, and changing money for customers, and generally trashing the place, overturning tables and scattering the money.  I sang 'Gentle Jesus meek and mild' in Sunday School from a very young age.  This picture of Jesus simply never scanned with me.  He must have been angry?  No?  A holy rage.  How does the picture fit? 

¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

The Jews seem so calm in their response.  There must have been an uproar not recorded in the Gospels.  In actuality the priests were seeing an utter abomination happening in the Temple- the very house of God.  The system of authority they held, the mandated sacrifice of animals bought and paid for was a lucrative business- one that the entire lives of the people revolved around.  God in a house; God's mercy bought and paid for with the blood of animals.  Pretty horrendous when you think of it.  Bawling and bleating of animals, blood all over the place in a hot country. No Mr. Clean!

 Jesus has come to put an end to that kind of wrong practice. What will happen when your precious Temple, your house of God is torn down, seems to be Jesus' message. Do you mean to say that God dies with a brick and mortar structure built by human hands?! 

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” ²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled that he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus has something entirely new to tell the Jews.  It must have been not only shocking to them, but they must have been thinking, 'We have to get rid of this guy.  He's means to destroy us all, our authority, our livelihoods, our power over the people. Without the Temple the whole point is lost! 

Yes.  They had reason to be afraid; be very afraid.  The focus is now on Christ Jesus. And we know that indeed the Temple was destroyed, only one wall remaining to this day.  And the cult lost its center.  The people who once called this place God's house now are The People of the Book.  God has left the house. There had to be a new focus. 

So what about all of this?  We've all got ridding out to do.  Spring cleaning.  I know I do!  I took a large bag of clothing to the Goodwill.  I've been discarding things that I have kept for who knows what.  But that is only skimming the surface of the Spring cleaning I need to do in my life.  That's just the easy ridding out.

  I need to get rid of worry, anxiety, disappointments, anger, resentments, woulda, coulda, shoulda.  I've spent  far too much time on unhelpful things- memories to be healed and replaced with hopeful, helpful things such as gratitude and joy in real relationships. I have to go through the rooms in myself left far too long to gather dust. Life isn't like Facebook: hit the Friend or Like button or Hide, Unsubcribe, BLOCK.  That isn't real life. The real ridding out is akin to being whipped into driving out the dirt, being driven me to one's knees.  "Top to bottom. And don't forget those drips!"  The real cleaning is to clean out one's whole house- body, mind and spirit. 

Psalm 69

¹ Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.
² I sink in the miry depths,
where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
the floods engulf me.
³ I am worn out calling for help;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
looking for my God.
⁴ Those who hate me without reason
outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal.

⁵ You, God, know my folly;
my guilt is not hidden from you.

⁶ Lord, the LORD Almighty,
may those who hope in you
not be disgraced because of me;
God of Israel,
may those who seek you
not be put to shame because of me.
⁷ For I endure scorn for your sake,
and shame covers my face.
⁸ I am a foreigner to my own family,
a stranger to my own mother’s children;
⁹ for zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
¹⁰ When I weep and fast,
I must endure scorn;
¹¹ when I put on sackcloth,
people make sport of me.
¹² Those who sit at the gate mock me,
and I am the song of the drunkards.

¹³ But I pray to you, LORD,
in the time of your favor;
in your great love, O God,
answer me with your sure salvation.
¹⁴ Rescue me from the mire,
do not let me sink;
deliver me from those who hate me,
from the deep waters.
¹⁵ Do not let the floodwaters engulf me
or the depths swallow me up
or the pit close its mouth over me.

¹⁶ Answer me, LORD, out of the goodness of your love;
in your great mercy turn to me.
¹⁷ Do not hide your face from your servant;
answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.
¹⁸ Come near and rescue me;
deliver me because of my foes.

¹⁹ You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed;
all my enemies are before you.
²⁰ Scorn has broken my heart
and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
for comforters, but I found none.
²¹ They put gall in my food
and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

²² May the table set before them become a snare;
may it become retribution and^[b] a trap.
²³ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.
²⁴ Pour out your wrath on them;
let your fierce anger overtake them.
²⁵ May their place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
²⁶ For they persecute those you wound
and talk about the pain of those you hurt.
²⁷ Charge them with crime upon crime;
do not let them share in your salvation.
²⁸ May they be blotted out of the book of life
and not be listed with the righteous.

²⁹ But as for me, afflicted and in pain—
may your salvation, God, protect me.

³⁰ I will praise God’s name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.
³¹ This will please the LORD more than an ox,
more than a bull with its horns and hooves.
³² The poor will see and be glad—
you who seek God, may your hearts live!
³³ The LORD hears the needy
and does not despise his captive people.

³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and all that move in them,
³⁵ for God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
Then people will settle there and possess it;
³⁶ the children of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will dwell there.