Song Sheets & Sermon
Build Your Kingdom Here
Come set Your rule and reign
In our hearts again
Increase in us we pray
Unveil why we're made
Come set our hearts ablaze with hope
Like wildfire in our very souls
Holy Spirit come invade us now
We are Your church
We need Your pow'r in us
We seek Your kingdom first
We hunger and we thirst
Refuse to waste our lives
For You're our joy and prize
To see the captives' hearts released
The hurt the sick the poor at peace
We lay down our lives for heaven's cause
We are Your church
We pray revive this earth
Build Your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build Your kingdom here we pray
Unleash Your kingdom's pow'r
Reaching the near and far
No force of hell can stop
Your beauty changing hearts
You made us for much more than this
Awake the kingdom seed in us
Fill us with the strength and love of Christ
We are Your church
We are the hope on earth
Build Your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build Your kingdom here we pray
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
My chains are gone I've been set free
My God my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love amazing grace
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures
My chains are gone I've been set free
My God my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love amazing grace
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God who called me here below
Will be forever mine
Will be forever mine
You are forever mine
Jesus Shall Reign
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Does its successive journeys run
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore
Till sun shall rise and set no more
Blessings abound where'er He reigns
The pris'ner leaps to lose his chains
The weary find eternal rest
And all the sons of want are blessed
To our King be highest praise
Rising through eternal days
Just and faithful He shall reign
Jesus shall reign
People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on His love with sweetest song
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on His name
To our King be highest praise
Rising through eternal days
Just and faithful He shall reign
Jesus shall reign
Let every creature rise and bring
Blessing and honor to our King
Angels descend with songs again
And earth repeat the loud amen
To our King be highest praise
Rising through eternal days
Just and faithful He shall reign
Jesus shall reign
Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God
Holy Spirit living Breath of God
Breathe new life into my willing soul
Let the presence of the risen Lord
Come renew my heart and make me whole
Cause Your word to come alive in me
Give me faith for what I cannot see
Give me passion for Your purity
Holy Spirit breathe new life in me
Holy Spirit come abide within
May Your joy be seen in all I do
Love enough to cover ev'ry sin
In each thought and deed and attitude
Kindness to the greatest and the least
Gentleness that sows the path of peace
Turn my strivings into works of grace
Breath of God show Christ in all I do
Holy Spirit from creation's birth
Giving life to all that God has made
Show Your power once again on earth
Cause Your church to hunger for Your ways
Let the fragrance of our pray'rs arise
Lead us on the road of sacrifice
That in unity the face of Christ
Teach Us Your Ways
Teach us Your ways teach us Your ways
As we learn from one another
Learn to love each other
Teach us Your ways
Teach us to give teach us to give
Give ourselves for one another
Learn to love each other
Teach us to give
Teach us to weep teach us to weep
Let us weep with one another
Learn to love each other
Teach us to weep
Hallelujah hallelujah
Let us learn from one another
Learn to love each other
Teach us Your ways
Adam Veenstra
Ebenezer CRC
November 3, 2024
Scripture Reading
For our message this morning we are going to reflect on Matthew 21:12-17, which you can find on page 1532 of the Bibles in front of you. This passage is often used to illustrate the desecration and disrespect of a holy space, and that is an important point to be made.
But another point in this passage is the specifics of how this holy space has been desecrated, and who among God’s people are impacted. Because that same desecration can easily happen to the spiritual house that we talked about last week—that is the community of believers and united family of God.
So I invite you to turn with me to page 1532, starting at verse 12:
12 Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
“‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”
17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
Message
Part 1 - Context
If you are already familiar with the life of Jesus, then you likely read this passage with hindsight, and know that in the narrative of his life this story falls close to his death.
So it can be read with a sense of urgency, as the narrative starts to escalate.
If this were an episode of The Chosen, it would be close to the season finale and the music would get tense and the previews would ramp up the drama.
You start to pay more attention as a story reaches its climax, and the details seems to take on new importance.
In Jesus’ ministry, things are getting crucial. Every move he makes feels more important than ever, and every move speaks to his identity as the Saviour for God’s creation and God’s people.
This passage takes place in the large outdoor Court of the Gentiles—non-Jewish believers--which encompassed several acres of the temple in Jerusalem. It was on outside of the inner courtyards for the priests, Jewish men, and then Jewish women.
Isaiah 56 says that the Gentiles would have a promised place in the temple, and the Jewish people took this to mean a literal, physical place, but the religious leaders have allowed them to be crowded out by noise and smells, and corruption.
People who were already on the fringes are being pushed out ever further.
Many of the booths that were set up for buying and selling were in fact operated by the families of the high priests, and surplus earnings went right back into the temple fund.
Scholars have noted that there would have been a currency exchange for the temple tax, where Gentiles could swap the local currency with pagan imagery on it for more high quality silver that was deemed an acceptable offering by temple officials. Animals that had been deemed worthy for sacrifice were also sold, including doves, which was the most affordable animal you could buy for sacrifice.
Like any other famous place of worship that you could still visit today, the stuff in the gift shop will cost you so much more than the stuff three blocks away.
And while there is a conversation to be had about places of worship becoming tourist sites, the conversation for us today, as it relates to Safe Church, is how the operations at that site become a source of injustice, and perhaps even abuse, with those in power exploiting those who are most vulnerable.
Here you have some of the wealthiest and most influential people in religious circles using their family and friends to extract money from those who have very little to give.
And they are doing it in God’s name: they are assuring those who are on the literal fringes of the religious community that this is how God wants things to be. It affects the physical makeup of the temple, but also the spiritual house that God’s people are meant to be united in together, as equals.
So Jesus says that the Father’s house has become like a den of robbers, quoting the book of Jeremiah, when the guilty hid in caves to try and escape from their sins and mistakes.
When this story is told in the book of Mark, it says that he refuses to allow people to carry their merchandise through the courts, and the book of John adds the detail of coins being scattered as he flips tables over, and that that he actually made a whip of chords to drive people out.
Next month we’ll sing a lot of songs about a baby who is meek and mild.
Obviously that’s just part of who he was.
Christ himself could get angry.
But he got angry on behalf of his people, on behalf of those who were vulnerable.
He got angry at injustice.
Because underneath that anger is the incredible compassion and care for his people, fulfilling what we read in Scripture:
That the Lord is our rock and our fortress, our protection, in whom we can find comfort and in whom we can take refuge.
He lets us live beneath the shelter of his wings, watching over us and shielding us from true harm.
He is being the Messianic light in the darkness for vulnerable people who were being oppressed in the name of his Father.
Because immediately after this display of anger, he gets to work.
Verse 14 of our passage tells us that he heals those who would have had no access to the temple at all. And he points to the children, who would have been some of the most vulnerable at the time, and reminds those in power that theirs is the most important and prophetic voice.
Those in power, of course, don’t react well. The privileged will always react with indignation when the status quo of that privilege is threatened.
But Jesus cares more about the Gospel and the impacts of his saving grace than he does about their privileged entitlement and gatekeeping. He has come to make all things new, and that might leave some uncomfortable.
As author and pastor Jonathan Martin said, “if you Christianity makes emperors feel comfortable and oppressed people feel unsafe, it’s time for a grand reversal.”
This passage is one example of Jesus’ plan for redemption and that grand reversal.
Jesus himself says in a parable that the last will be first and the first will be last.
A crucial part of the Gospel is advocating for the last. For the vulnerable.
Because that is what Jesus has done for us.
We have all been vulnerable to sin—our personal sin, and the effects of sin in the world.
That vulnerability, and how it affects our relationship to the world, looks differently for each of us.
But Christ’s grand reversal wipes away any hierarchy or imbalance.
So that is what we are called to do for others. Take part in the redemptive work of that grand reversal so that the vulnerable will no longer be on the fringes, and the oppressed will no longer feel unsafe.
A crucial part of someone’s acceptance of the Gospel might require seeing that work happening in the world around them.
It might require that they see the church working to fight the injustice that has left so many vulnerable.
Just as Jesus did here, and all throughout his ministry.
That is his call for us.
Part 2 – Mission/Application
And that is the call that Safe Church asks us all to respond to, as we put systems in place and create a culture that allows us to fight injustice like Jesus did.
So that it’s not just something that we say, but something that we visibly do; it’s not always enough to be safe, but also to have the proof that you are safe.
Leadership coach Emily Sander once said that “Safety in a community gets defined by how the most marginal person in that community is treated. We all believe that if people could see into our hearts and know who we really are, we too might get rejected, so we notice how those at the margins are welcome.”
At some point, in some way, we have all been vulnerable. And Jesus has welcomed us in.
So how we do that for others--how we care for them and advocate for them--is indicative of how we’re following him.
Safe Church is a justice and Gospel issue for those who have been made vulnerable in this particular way.
It seeks to follow the example of Jesus: it seeks to flip tables to call out injustice, bring awareness to it, and lament what has gone wrong. But then seeks to offer tangible and visible healing, make it right where possible, and work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
We don’t do this work out of suspicion or mistrust for one another, but out of hope and reassurance, because we know that there is already enough suspicion and mistrust in the world towards the church. And often deservedly so.
A couple years ago, one of the high school kids who came over for lunch every day asked me, out of the blue and with no context, if I was a pedophile. They said their parents wondered the same thing.
I assured them that I was not, nor ever would be.
But unfortunately I understood where the question was coming from.
Because if you’re only nominally familiar with the church and with church leaders, you may only be familiar with the crimes they commit, and the generations of people who have been abused by those in authority in the church.
That abuse has been widespread, and it is physical, sexual, emotional, and spiritual.
I guarantee that you all know at least one person who has experienced one of these forms of abuse in a church or Christian setting.
And maybe that person has graciously forgiven the church, and recognizes the reality that it is not all churches and not all church leaders.
But if we have unity with the Christian church in all times and all places, then we have a responsibility to address the sins committed by that church.
Famous German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes that “Our church, which has been fighting in these years only for its self-preservation…is not capable of taking the word of reconciliation and redemption to mankind and the world. Our words are then bound to lose their force and cease”
If the church’s words and actions don’t line up, the world may begin to lose trust in other churches, and those words will lose their power and meaning.
We have to re-earn the world’s trust after the sins that have been made in the name of Jesus.
It might not seem fair, but that is the reality we live in.
So we do that by following the actual example and mission of Jesus, and do everything in our power for the sake of the most vulnerable.
In her recent documentary For Our Daughters, author and Calvin University professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez helps share three powerful stories of abuse that have taken place in churches. Stories like those helped prompt #ChurchToo, an offshoot of the #MeToo movement.
The point of the documentary, and of the movement, isn’t to be vengeful or even fearful, but to be mindful. Mindful of the stories and experiences that desperately need the hope of the Gospel!
So that we will be indignant for all the right reasons, and then use that indignation to fuel action, and join in the work of the Holy Spirit to help provide healing, and change.
Because of we’re not working towards a hopelessly idealistic world in which there is no such thing as abuse—or working towards a realistic goal of mitigating the risk of abuse as much as we can—then what’s the point of being Reformed?
What is the point of the transforming power of God’s grace?
Because this is how we see grace in the Reformed tradition: Christ redeeming all things because all things belong to him.
Because we believe that the first will be last and the last will be first.
We believe that the Lord is making all things new.
We believe that because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, someday there will be no more mourning or crying or pain, because the old order of things has passed away.
Mexican theologian Carols Bravo Jr. has linked this particular passage to post-colonial sentiments in Mexico and other formerly-colonized countries around the world.
He writes, “God’s kingdom does not belong to the important, to the rich, or to the powerful, but to the poor in spirit, the meek, the gentle, the peacemakers, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and those who are persecuted.”
That’s what we are to model ourselves after, and it’s who we are to advocate for.
In the book of Esther, when the title character is wondering about whether or not she should stand up to the authorities and help her people, she’s told this: “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Last week we said how we have been given a royal priesthood. A royal position.
And it has been given at such a time as this. We are not called to remain silent, but help give relief and deliverance to whomever is the most vulnerable in our context, so that they no longer have to feel that they are perishing.
We are called to flip tables, point out injustice, and take a stand for what is right.
When we do, the religious leaders might get indignant, and accuse us of all kinds of things. Because it will be disruptive, inconvenient, confusing, and messy. You might find yourself on the opposite side of a conversation from someone that you have trusted or been in relationship with for your entire Christian walk.
But it is Gospel to stand up for those who are being oppressed, no matter what religious authority it might disrupt or offend or oppose.
We will not grow in spiritually as individuals, and our church will not grow spiritually or in size, if we don’t.
At the very least, we get our police checks done and we do our half hour Safe Church training once a year.
But then, we shift our paradigm, and work to foster a culture that seeks to love and create a safe space for our neighbours, especially those neighbours who are vulnerable.
And I’ll let you in on a secret: every one of your neighbours has been made vulnerable in some way.
Safe Church is a system to prove that the world can trust us, but also a means to accomplish our mission to address injustice and offer healing.
In a perfect world it wouldn’t be necessary. But we know that we don’t live in a perfect world yet. So for now, hopefully we can see Safe Church as a tool for the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
Here at Ebenezer, we refer to this space as both our sanctuary and our Ebenezer living room.
Both names suggest that when you come in here you should be able to let your guard down, be yourself, and trust the people you love around you.
Sometimes that takes work. But by the power of the Holy Spirit it is work that we are capable of as God’s people together.
So I invite you to rise now, in body or in spirit, however you are able, and receive God’s blessing for that work:
May God, who began a good work in you, continue to be at work in your life, guiding, teaching and equipping you until Jesus Christ returns.
May your love and compassion continue to grow—a love that is full of knowledge and wise insight, so that you will be able to recognize what really matters and live a pure and blameless life.
May you live a life centered in the Holy Spirit, a life that bears rich fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, tolerance and self-control – all the good things that come from following the Spirit, for living this way will bring much glory and praise to God. Amen.