March 15 - Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 2:13-22

Our readings this morning appear at first to be heading off in entirely different directions, and the appeal can be to focus on one strand rather than consider whether they offer any shared insight.  It is possible, on further inspection, to draw these lines together enabling us to consider the guidance and wisdom required for the life of servitude which follow the commitment to observe God’s law, and the response that commitment demands of us.
Summarised and redefined in Christ, the Law is set as loving God and loving our neighbours as ourselves.  The love of which is spoken is a selfless and serving love.  It is within that context that all the other law and guidance can be found.  How that law is lived out practically can be an ongoing challenge we all face.  We are often tempted to find ourselves seeking patterns and routines which offer security but can also become distractions – like those who brought and offered sacrifice at the temple.  We may seek signs, experiences and evidence of God, as Paul described the Jews as doing.  We may look to academic study and discipline as Paul remarks of the Gentiles.  Whatever our distraction may be, these elements of religion can act as barriers or asides to a life of faithful service.  While these patterns can add enormously to our lives of faith, and should be encouraged, we need to continually seek to ensure that we remain faithful to our covenant and willingness to observe the Law.

Listening to the call to demonstrate our love, through thought, word and deed, means that we need to regularly willing to listen, learn and grow.  Such growth can be achieved in many ways, and such methods of self reflection can be understood from this morning’s texts. 
Our first challenge is to respond to the Law in seeking God’s wisdom.  Paul reprimands for relying on wisdom not centred in God’s wisdom promised through Christ and ensured and refreshed through the Spirit.  The reprimand focuses on corporate wisdom but applies as much to specific, personal occurrences.  It is convenient and easy to respond to any given situation through our own desires and focus.  The temptation frequently exists to not seek discernment through the helpful places, and thus not allow space for God.  In the fellowship found within communities of faith, in the apparently innocuous words of a book, in the voice of a respected companion, in silence or prayer offered before God, the wisdom may be gleaned.  Trusting in God’s guiding Spirit for Wisdom ensures that we start in any given situation already willing and able to hear the most appropriate response to the Law.

This wisdom needs then to be built upon in action.  Listening alone is not sufficient response to fulfil the law.  It provokes action.  This action should be appropriate, transformative and radical.
Just as Jesus discovered in the temple, such consideration is required for any action undertaken.  Acknowledging that his action must be appropriate, he found a way to demonstrate his love and the fulfilment of the Law in a way which not only responded to the situation but also promoted understanding.  A passive, calm, measured and diplomatic response was likely to be overlooked or shushed up by the authorities.  In our own responses, the appropriateness still needs to be assessed.  The way we live out the law will be most effective when appropriate regardless of whether it is ever seen or acknowledged by others.  The appropriateness needs to be routed in the situation, and respond directly to that.  It is in considering the whole, that the appropriate response can be understood.

The second element is to be transformative.  The Law is not static and, as such, cannot always be understood in the same way.  In honouring the law and listening to the spirit, we must consider that transformation can and will happen.  In the case of Jesus in the temple, John sets this story where he does to emphasise the way in which Jesus’ ministry was centred in the law through God, but the action was both political and spiritual.  Coming together in this narrative, we can consider the way this act set out Jesus’ commitment in ministry.  He is transformed into the person we know and acknowledge as Christ.  We, like him, must be as willing to embrace challenge as are the people we’re called to love and serve.  Through a mutual willingness to grow, each of us may be transformed in the Love of God.

The final strand of action requires of us a willingness to be radical.  This radical action in the love and wisdom of God needs to grow from a sense of appropriateness and willingness to be transformed.  It is the response required of such discernment but being radical is, in itself, a responsibility.  Radical action has no map or pre-determined route.  The challenge of an appropriate and transformative act of love mans it may buck trends or even require a unique and unprecedented response.  In action which seeks to be radical, it must hold true to what has been explored about seeking guidance from the spirit and preparing our response, but is followed by an act.  Whether characteristic or not, such violent a violent outburst by Jesus in the temple, it must be carried through.  Imagine if Jesus had made the whip but stopped there, or thrown out the sellers of animals not money changers.  It would not have had the effect it did, nor convey the message of the love and law of God.  As John sets Jesus up as someone moved to this response, he repeatedly emphasises the radical and unexpected acts of love he offers.

While this path of action and discernment doesn’t seem easy, it can’t be omitted or met half heartedly.  It requires of us an ongoing humility and willingness to both change but also admit our fallibility.  In this journey, commitment and dependability are as much aspirations as causes for celebration – and in this season of lent determined service which presents a challenge can easily become the focus.  We should not seek or expect reward but offer our service as a gift of love, but the focus should remain on the commitment and challenge.  Despite that, our service and love which is the fulfilment of the law, bring with them access to unique and unparalleled gifts from God.  The Psalmist mentioned many of these gifts but two stand out. 

In demonstrating God’s love, and thus honouring God’s laws, we find our place, a place from which we can sense and begin to understand the Kingdom of God.

In those glimpses and through living lives of selfless love, we find ourselves liberated.  In the unconditional love of God we are free but can only begin to comprehend this liberation in the lives which are centred in God’s love.

To find ourselves as faithful adherents to God’s law, we have begun to understand how our service must be offered.  In seeking wisdom and being active, we must be willing to go beyond merely following the law, we must become it.  We need to continually work to *be* the love for God and the love for our neighbours and selves – as well as just doing acts which demonstrate it.