And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;  you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
    You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
    Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed  the sabbath day and hallowed it.
    Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
    You shall not kill.
    You shall not commit adultery.
    You shall not steal.
    You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
    You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's."

Today's Epistle is from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, beginning at the 1st Chapter:
 

    For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,  but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

+ A Reading from the Gospel of John, beginning at the 2nd Chapter:

    The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.    In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business.     And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house of trade."  His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for thy house will consume me."

    The Jews then said to him, "What sign have you to show us for doing this?"  Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

    Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did; but Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man; for he himself knew what was in man.

    Judaism reckons that there are 640-some commandments in the Old Testament, and observant Jews are required to observe each and every one of them.  By a decision of the Apostles at what is called the "First Council" in Jerusalem, we Christians, the inheritors of Judaism, are excused from the rigors of this observance, but we are still called upon to be virtuous people -- and the Ten Commandments are a sort of "least common denominator" of virtue and morality.

    Following these commandments, we can live as a society -- they require us to be honest and upright, and to treat others with respect, to do no harm.  They also require us to pay attention to the Lord, to set aside a time for Him, and for ourselves, to pray and reflect.

    And in this, they very much parallel Jesus' Two Great Commandments:  "Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with thy whole heart, and soul and mind".  (A direct quote from Deuteronomy)  And:  "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."  (His New Commandment -- elsewhere worded: "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love others as I have loved you").

    So, over and above the uprightness required of us under the Old Covenant, the New Covenant in Jesus requires us also to love, and loving, to respect and nurture.  We are not merely to prize righteousness, but to love and to cherish -- strict and obsessive adherence to the law is not Christian, but loving and forgiving are.  As St. Paul says in Galatians:  "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. "
 

    In today's Gospel Jesus enforces the Third Commandment:  "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."  He drives the money-changers and animal-sellers out of the Temple.  He insists that His Father's house be a place of prayer, not a place of business.

    He insists, too, that our houses -- our selves -- be also a place of prayer and reflection, at least once in the week, better every day, and better every moment.  "Pray unceasingly" the Bible counsels us.

    We are very much eaten up with the things of the world -- business, keeping house, hobbies, and all the craziness of modern life.  For our own health and sanity, we need to take time to rest and recuperate, to make contact with the source of all healing -- He, the Vine whose branches we are.

    When we take time to love God, as Christ has commanded us, we then have the opportunity to feel His love, His healing, the joy of His Presence.  We are not just bodies and economic units, interacting in a marketplace, but also immortal souls -- and, as we feed the body (and recharge the bank account), we need to feed and nurture our souls, too.  We do this with prayer and worship and praise -- and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon us can cultivates our souls like precious blooms in a garden -- for the whole UNiverse is God's garden, and we are to be both the cultivators and the cultivated -- both body and soul.

    The second part of the Gospel foretells Jesus' Passion, Death and Resurrection.  He says that if they tear down "this Temple" -- His body (and here is the scriptural source of the Church's constant insistence that our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit) -- that He will build it up again in three days.  "When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken."

    The Pharisees and Lawyers took these words as talking about the physical temple, laughed, and went their ways.  The Apostles and disciples remained puzzled until He Rose on the third day, and the general populace "...believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did..."
 

    St. Paul, in his Epistle, remarks on this"  "...Jews demand signs..."  And, indeed, Jesus provided signs -- His constant miracles, and His overwhelming triumph:  the Resurrection.  He also speaks wisely, for those "...Greeks [who] seek wisdom...".

    But His Crucifixion is: "...a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.." -- a paradox, not what anyone expected.  This wonder worker, this man who carefully and explicitly claims to be God and the Son of God, goes down to death like a common criminal, punished by mankind's blindness to the love and glory of the Father.

    But, as St. Paul says:  "...to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God."  Going past, and through, the Death on the Cross, which we contemplate in this Lenten season, we come to the Glorious Resurrection, which is the culmination of Jesus' life and teaching.

    Let us, therefore, meditate these next two weeks, and, expecting the Resurrection, pray that we may grow in love and righteousness...

        In the Name of

        The Father     +

        And of the Son

        And of the Holy Spirit

Amen.