damn doves

Thursday March 15th, John 2: 16 Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, "Get those doves out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace. The doves and all the other animals were used to sell to people who had traveled to Jerusalem to make a sacrifice at the temple. It was convenient. They did not have to travel a long way with the sacrificial animal. The money changers also helped because they could exchange the people’s money for coins that did not have the face of one of the various local rulers on it. To use such coins in the temple was forbidden and was considered a form of idolatry. All the systems in place were for very good and helpful reasons in the beginning. But like most seemingly good ideas that make things easier, they had morphed in their focus from helping the other to helping the self. These formerly helpful systems made a good profit off the poor who had traveled long distances. The system worked so well no one ever thought about how it worked against the down and out of God’s creation except those who were down and out. That is until Jesus came along. The system worked well, but what needed changing was the system. How convenient is church for those who regularly attend, and how is that convenience keeping others out? Do we perhaps need to make church a bit more inconvenient for the church goers in order to make it more welcoming for those who are not there? Look at your worship planning and execution this week and look for the barriers we put in place for the other.