Wrecking The Promised Land

Josh1:1-10  Josh 7:1  John2:13-22

I remember the day we moved in to St Matthew’s Vicarage.

I arrived ahead of the removal men and was able to look round the house.

It was beautiful. Everything freshly painted. Everything swept clean.

New carpets laid. New curtains up.

There were flowers and fruit and a card from the parish to welcome us.

It was like arriving at a promised land.

Then the removal lorry pulled onto the drive.

Then the house started to be filled with all our things and no decision as to where to put them.

Packing cases. Boxes. Newspaper. Wrapping paper. Piles of crockery here, stacks of.

books there. Too much furniture. Too many things. Too much clutter.

All ruining the lovely sense of order and space that had been created.

It’s fine now of course, but I do remember a growing sense of desperation as the Cunnington’s clutter just kept on coming.

Our reading from the book of Joshua could easily have marked the end of the bible.

God’s people are delivered from slavery. They have crossed through the wilderness and they stand on the threshold of the land flowing with milk and honey – the promised land.

It’s there waiting for them like a newly decorated house.

Joshua is the new leader of the people at this momentous moment.

God gives him the promise of victory against any enemy, he pledges his abiding presence “Be strong and of good courage for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go”

Only keep the commandments.

Only stay faithful – and the future will be glorious.

But you only have to read on seven chapters to see that it all soon started to go wrong.

“The people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things and the anger of the Lord burned against his people”

So the Holy Bible continues for hundreds of pages more.

Story after story of moving away from God and then drawing near. Of disobedience followed by reconciliation. Of fresh starts being messed up by the clutter the people bring.

That’s probably why St John puts the cleansing of the temple, not on the day after Palm Sunday as in the other Gospels, but here in chapter two, right at the start of Jesus ministry.

He goes to the heart of the promised land – the temple – and forcibly removes all the clutter out of the place.

The clutter of superstition and control. The clutter of law misinterpreted.

The clutter of the things by which the people of God assumed they were to be defined

Everything is removed in a fit of anger and rage born out of the love God so yearned to give.

Everything is removed until there is just Jesus standing there alone.

And that is the point – that at the heart of the promised land, years after the promise made to Joshua – here is its fulfilment

“Be strong and of good courage for the Lord your God is with you”

Not hovering in a pillar of cloud, not in words from the mouth of a prophet, not in the detail of any written law – but God with you as Emmanuel – in the form of Jesus Christ full of grace and truth.

And we have beheld his glory.

Try as we might, the theme continues in the life of you and I.

The Garden of Eden. The promised land, the holy city, call it what you like but God is always offering fresh starts to his people.

And we are always accepting them gladly and willingly, with the hope and joy that must make the heart of God miss a beat.

And yet we are always bringing our clutter along and by and large that’s what, detracts from the gift, it diverts our attention away from it, becomes the important thing.

Lent is a time for clearing all this out once more that we might make room for Jesus in the place where it matters. Examining our consciences. Reviewing our pattern of life.

Confessing our sins. Receiving his grace. Walking in his light. Proclaiming his truth.

We try our best to keep the vicarage tidy.

Alison and I are quite house proud people.

To keep it nice is a testimony to the huge amount of work others put in for us.

But there are two cupboards upstairs, big ones in the roof.

We wouldn’t want you to see in there. You wouldn’t actually get in through the door.

Too much clutter you see. Needs a good sorting out. By somebody.

We thank you Lord for the gift of promised land in our lives.

For the continual offer of a new start and a fresh beginning.

We offer you our resolve to do better with the opportunities you give us.

To allow space for the gift to take central place.

Take hold of the clutter that only we can name before you and cast it forth as you did in the temple.

RH 24.2.08