STILL TRYING TO MAKE DEALS WITH GOD?

In the film, A House of Sand and Fog, the son of an Islamic man is shot.  The distressed Father begins to pray.  "If You let my son live, I will lay in the park, put bird seed on my eyes, and let the birds eat my eyes out."  Stress and Tragedy pull him into trying to make a deal with God.  This is a place we might know.  It's hard to erase or change the tapes we have about the deal making God.

The moment Jesus changes the name of the Temple, to 'My Fathers' House', the earthquake begins.  In the Temple, 'Holy Exchange' is the name of the game.  But Jesus' Father is not a deal maker.  He does not exchange favours for sacrifices.  What is 'needed' in the Temple is not needed in, "My Fathers House".   It's beginning to look as if Jesus is not just cleansing the Temple, He is replacing it.  In His meeting with the woman at the well, (Jn 4: 23-24) He teaches her that access to God is immediate and direct for those who worship in spirit and in truth. 

Our world is oiled by the 'quid pro quo'. But when these become part of our spiritual journey they become a major obstacle.  When so called, religious elites, set themselves up as negotiators between people and God, all sorts of ugly things can happen.  They might prey on people's fears or claim only they have rights on divine transactions.  Marks Gospel 12:38 directly attacks those who, "devour widows'  houses and for the sake of appearances say long prayers". Being paid to pray to God for poor widows, is a callous thing to do and it is fed by a belief in the deal making God.

In the Risen Jesus, the Sacred is relocated. God does not confine Himself only to Holy places.  However, it is easier to repudiate the Temple than it is to eradicate the deal making God. 

Let's begin by saying that The Father of Jesus is less at home in images of the market place and more at home when we are simply grateful for life and love and serve these two as best and in whatever way we can.  Let's go on to say that it is in receiving and giving His Life and finding joy in both that we are admitted to the Holy of Holies.  When our sacrifice is united with the divine sacrifice, life itself is seen as holy.  And the next time we talk to God, the joy won't be in thinking we got a good deal but that we went beyond deals and into Love.