3 Lent

 

March 8, 2021

Exodus 20.1-17; John 2.13-22

 

+ Lent, as you have heard me say over and over again, is a time for us to sort of quiet ourselves of course.

 

But, of course, it is so much more than that.

 

It is also a time to reorganize ourselves to a large extent.

 

It is a time to put things in order in our lives.

 

It is also a time to get rid of whatever clutter we might have knocking around inside us or in our lives.

 

It is a time, in following the Commandments that we, with Moses received at Mount Sinai in our reading from Exodus today, in which we must get rid of the “idols” of our lives—those many things we have and do and believe that come before our worship of God.

 

The clutter of our lives  is that stuff in our lives—and “stuff” is the prefect word for it—that just piles up.

 

If you’re anything like me, we sometimes start ignoring our clutter.

 

We walk around and we see it, but we almost become used to the clutter.

 

The clutter ends up becoming a part of our lives.

 

We sort of do that too with our own spiritual clutter.

 

We don’t give it a second thought, even when we’re tripping over it and stumbling on it.

 

In fact, often we don’t fully realize how much clutter we have until after we’ve disposed of it.

 

When we see that clean, orderly room, we realize only then how clutter sort of made us lose our appreciation for the beauty of the room itself.

 

In Lent, what we dispose of is the clutter and “idols” of our spiritual lives.

 

And we all have spiritual clutter.

 

And e do have our “idols.”

 

We have those things that “get in the way.”

 

We have our bad habits.

 

We have those things that we do without even thinking we’re doing them.

 

And oftentimes, they’re not good for us—or at least they don’t enhance our spiritual lives, they don’t bring us closer to God.

 

Often the clutter in our spiritual lives gets in the way of our prayer life, our spiritual discipline, our all-important relationship with God.

 

The clutter in our spiritual life truly becomes something we find ourselves “tripping” over.

 

The clutter in our spiritual life causes us to stumble occasionally.

 

And when it does, we find our spiritual life less than what it should be.

 

Sometimes it’s just “off.”

 

During Lent, it is an important time to take a look around us.

 

It is important to actually see the spiritual clutter in our lives and to clear it away in whatever ways we can.

 

In our Gospel reading for today, we find Jesus going into the temple and clearing out the clutter there.

 

He sweeps the Temple clean, because he knows that the clutter of the merchants who have settled there are not enhancing the beauty of the Temple.

 

They are not helping people in their relationship with God.

 

Rather, these merchants are there for no spiritual reasons at all, ultimately.

 

They are there for their own gain and for nothing else.

 

In a sense, we need to, like Jesus, clean out the “merchants” in our lives as well.

 

We need to have the Temple of our bodies cleaned occasionally.

 

We need to sweep it clean and, in doing so, we will find our spirituality a little more finely tuned.

 

We will find our prayer life a more fulfilling.

 

We will find our time at Mass more meaningful, even virtually.

 

We will find our engaging of Scripture to be more edifying.

 

We will find our service to others to be a bit more selfless and purposeful than it was before.

 

We will see things with a clearer spiritual eye—which we all need.

 

It is a matter of simplifying our spiritual lives.

 

It is matter of recognizing that in our relationship with God and one another, we don’t need the clutter—we don’t need those things that get in the way.

 

We don’t need anything to complicate our spiritual lives.

 

There are enough obstacles out there.

 

There will always be enough “stuff” falling into our pathways, enough ”things” for us to stumble over, enough “idols” we find ourselves mindlessly worshipping.

 

Without the clutter in our lives, it IS easier to keep our spiritual lives clean.

 

Without the clutter in our life, we find things are just…simpler.

 

In our Gospel reading for today, we also find that the Temple Jesus is cleaning out and cleansing serves its purpose for now, but even it will be replaced with something more perfect and something, ultimately, more simple.

In a very real sense, our own bodies become temples of this living God because of what Jesus did.

 

Our bodies also become the dwelling places of that one, living God.

 

We will become the Temples of the living God.

 

Which brings us back to Lent.

 

In this season of Lent, we become mindful of this simple fact.

 

Our bodies are the temples of that One, living God.

 

God dwells within us much as God dwelt in the Temple.

 

Because God dwells in us, we have this holiness inherent within us.

 

We are holy. Each of us.

 

Because of this Presence within us, we find ourselves wanting to cleanse the temple.

 

We find ourselves examining ourselves, looking closely at the things over which we trip and stumble.

 

We find ourselves realizing that the clutter of our lives really does distract us from remembering that God dwells with us and within us.

 

And when we realize that, we really do want to work on ourselves a bit.

 

We work at trying to simplify our lives—our actual, day-to-day lives, as well as our spiritual lives.

 

We want to actually spend time in prayer, in allowing that living God to dwell fully within us and to enlighten us.

 

We fast—emptying our bodies and purifying ourselves.

 

We recognize the wrongs we have done to ourselves and to others.

 

We realize that we have allowed this clutter to build up.

 

We realize we have not loved God or our neighbors.

 

Or even ourselves.

 

Or we have loved ourselves too much, and not God and our neighbors enough.

 

Or we have loved “things” too much and not God.

 

Once we have eliminated the spiritual clutter of our lives, we do truly find our God dwelling with us.

 

We find ourselves worshipping in that Body that cannot be cluttered.

 

We find a certain simplicity and beauty in our lives that comes only through spiritual discipline.

 

So, as we continue our journey through Lent, let us, like Jesus, take up the cords and go through the temple of our own selves.

 

Let us, like him, clear away the clutter of our lives.

 

Let us over turn and destroy the “idols” of our lives.

 

Let us cleanse the temple of our own self and make it like the Temple worthy of God. 

 

And when that happens, we will find ourselves proclaiming, with Psalm 69, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

 

For it will.

 Let us pray.

Holy God, help us to clean from the temples of our selves the clutter that your Son, Jesus drove from your Temple in Jerusalem. Cleanse us with the breath of your Spirit and let us be presentable dwelling places for that same Spirit to dwell and live within us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.