Brokenness and Restoration
During Lent, in
congregations I have served over the years, I have replaced the setting of the
Kyrie with the Hymn “O God, Father in Heaven”
(LBW 96, ELW 602). The hymn tune is Známe
to, Pane Boze nás. The words and the original hymn tune were composed by
Jiri Tranovsky in the 17th century and were first included in a
collection of hymns known as the Tranoscius in 1636. Tranovsky’s hymn tune contains elements of the
“Queen of Chorales” in the Lutheran tradition that is “Wie schön leuchtet der
Morganstern” (Tune for O Morning Star How Fair and Bright). Tranovsky’s tune
was arranged by Michal Kutzky in the 19th century for a Bohemian
Lutheran Hymnal. Tranovsky was a Slovak Lutheran Pastor who wrote the words of
this hymn in the Slovac language during the Thirty Years War when it is
estimated that half of Europe’s population was wipeout by the famine and disease
and direct carnage from the conflict. The loss of life would only be outdone by
the two World Wars of the 20th Century. What is especially
heartbreaking is that the Thirty Years War pitted Catholic against Lutheran and
in some cases Catholics and Lutherans against Calvinists or Anabaptist groups. Tranovsky’s
hymn text was translated into English in the late 20th Century by Jaroslav
J. Vajda and was included in hymns for the hymnal Laudamus (We Praise) produced by the Lutheran World Federation in
1970. The text of Tranovsky’s hymn is Trinitarian and acknowledges the brokenness
of our human condition as well as the brokenness for which we ourselves are
responsible. Like the Thirty Year War and the conflicts which are the result of
human sin and division, these things most certainly grieve God.
Sometimes conflict is the result of evil which we are
responsible for perpetuating. Sometimes in our postmodern age we have deluded
ourselves into thinking that human conflict is merely the result of some sort
of misunderstanding. Amid the recent rise of ISIS as Muslims, Jews and
Christians are persecuted by those who subvert religion itself human beings
permit evil to flourish when we do nothing. Amid the rise of the Third Reich,
many confessing Christians stood by in silence or even actively participated while
others were persecuted and killed. In the aftermath of natural disasters the
very best of human nature is sometimes evidenced. At the same time the drive
for self-preservation and greed show their ugly head. We saw both in the wake
of Hurricane Katrina. There were thousands of volunteers who assisted those who
had lost even everything and had their lives uprooted in the flooding and
direct damage caused by Katrina. Yet, at the same time there were those who exploited
those who had lost so much. Then there were those who failed to use the
available resources to assist with the evacuation of the crisis. Some public
officials were even later prosecuted. All of these are but some of the elements
in the brokenness which is a part of our world and that which the hymn “O God, Father in Heaven” acknowledges before
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
1 Leader
O
God, Father in heaven, have mercy upon us.
All
Your heart, O God, is grieved, we know,
by
ev’ry evil, ev’ry woe;
upon
your cross-forsaken Son
our
death is laid, and peace is won.
2 Leader
O
Son of God, redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us.
All
Your arms extend, O Christ, to save
from
sting of death and grasp of grave;
your
scars before the Father move
3 Leader
O
God, Holy Spirit, have mercy upon us.
All
O lavish Giver, come to aid
the
children that your word has made.
Now
make us grow and help us pray;
bring
joy and comfort; come to stay.
In our Gospel text for the Third Sunday in Lent we hear what would seem to be a
familiar story in the Gospel tradition:
John 2:13–22 13The
Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In
the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money
changers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove
all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured
out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16He
told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here!
Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" 17His disciples
remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume
me." 18The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show
us for doing this?" 19Jesus answered them, "Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20The Jews then said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you
raise it up in three days?" 21But he was speaking of the temple
of his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples
remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word
that Jesus had spoken.
While similar stories appear in Matthew, Mark and Luke (the
Synoptic Gospels), notice that this story appears already in the Second Chapter
of the Fourth Gospel. While the cleansing of the Temple certainly raises the ire
of the Temple authorities, Jesus has only begun his ministry, a ministry which
according to the Gospel writer John will last a total of three years (John
mentions three years of Passover observances in the Fourth Gospel). By this
point in the Gospel of John, Jesus is described in the poetic prologue of the
Gospel’s introduction, Jesus has been baptized and John the forerunner has
declared that this Jesus is the one upon whom the Holy Spirit has descended,
and upon whom the Spirit remains, who is the light coming into the world, the
one whom John is not worthy to even untie the thong of his sandals. Jesus still
wet from the Jordan begins calling disciples after John the Baptist reveals that
Jesus is the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” This “lamb of
God” begins calling disciples revealing in the process that he is able to
discern the hearts of the people whom he calls. By the beginning of this section
of the Second Chapter, Jesus attends a wedding in Cana with his mother and shows
forth a sign through his first miracle. Jesus is revealed to be the host of a
wedding banquet at which the choicest wine of the vineyard is served. Jesus
then travels with his mother and disciples to Capernaum along the shores of
Galilee or the Sea of Tiberius. Then at the first Passover mentioned in the Fourth
Gospel, Jesus goes to Jerusalem and in the temple overturns the tables. Jesus quotes
Psalm 69:9 revealing that it is the Son who truly and most obediently loves the
house of his Father. Now the meaning of house of the Father is shifting in its
meaning. The Father’s house is now to be seen in the body of the Son, which the
Son now cleanses in this dramatic act of turning out the money changers and the
even the sheep and cattle with a whip of chords. The temple of the market place
with its human corruption is cleansed that it might be a worthy temple the body
of Christ gathered for worship and sent out to serve.
The story of the Money Changers in the Temple” in the Synoptics
gives rise to the authorities seeking to arrest and kill Jesus. Yet in in John
the story is a sign of Jesus cleansing his own body the Church. The cleansing
of the temple serves as a sign of Christ’s cleansing of his body which he is
able to raise up by his resurrection on the third day. He is revealed to be truly
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and gives birth to the
people of God gathered to serve him.
In the Fourth Century, in the City of Hippo in North Africa
in the Roman Province of Carthage, the Bishop Augustine preached a sermon which
included an image which is quite apropos here. In a Sermon on John 6, Augustine
took the bread which was to be presented as the gifts before the altar in the
offertory and said to the congregation, “Believers know the body of Christ, if they wish to be the
body of Christ, let them become the body of Christ, so that they may live by
the Spirit of Christ.”
As the very members of the body of Christ, we receive that
which we know and believe to be the very body of Christ in the Eucharist. We
are called to be the temple of the Father that is the embodied body of Christ.
We are invited to receive the body of Christ that we might be cleansed,
renewed, restored, and forgiven in the midst of our brokenness by the Spirit of
Christ which is the Holy Spirit.
After I
graduated from seminary in 1994 two of my former professors David Yeago and
Robert Hawkins drafted a revised Brief order of Confession and Forgiveness.
A Revised Brief
Order
Of Confession
and Forgiveness
P: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the
Holy Spirit.
C: Amen.
C:
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no
secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your
Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy
name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
C: Amen.
P:
Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us; let us therefore celebrate
the festival, not with the old leaven of sin and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, confessing our sins to the Lord our
God.
Or,
during Lent:
P: the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep
silence before him!
Silence is observed
for reflection and self-examination
P: Most merciful God,
C: we confess that we have offended you in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. Our hearts have not
clung to you, our lips have not praised you, our lives have not glorified you,
as you deserve. Because of us your name is dishonored among the nations, and we
are not worthy to be called your people. For the sake of your Son, Jesus
Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may
delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name.
Amen.
P:
Almighty God, in his mercy has given his son to die for us, and, for his sake,
forgives us all our sins and calls us to serve him as his holy people. As a
called an ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I
therefore declared to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins. In the name
of the father and of the son + and of the Holy Spirit.
OR
P:
in the mercy of Almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for you, and for
his sake God forgives you all your sins. To those of believe in + Jesus Christ
he gives the power to become the children of God and bestows on them the Holy
Spirit.
C: Amen.
Or, during
Lent:
P Almighty God
have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ,
strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in
eternal life.
C Amen.
The confession
Concludes:
P: Serve the Lord with gladness, and come into his presence
with singing!
C: Give thanks to him and bless his name!
This order acknowledges is that we are born sinners and yet
in Holy Baptism, Christ becomes for us the chief sinner that we might be
enabled to live righteous lives. God calls us to remember our Baptism where we were
and are again through the act of calling to memory, cleansed, renewed, and
forgiven. In Baptism, Christ clings to us and we are clothed in the garment
which is Christ. Yet in our daily lives, we often fail to cling to Christ and to
faith in him. We have often not been worthy of our calling as disciples. While
Christ has died for us, we often grieve God. Yet amid our brokenness and our
failure to glorify God by clinging to Christ and being guided by the Holy
Spirit, God forgives us and more importantly calls us to stand before God that
in worship and thanksgiving that we might go into the world, renewed,
restored, and forgiven.
