Whiteboard: House of the Lord

This coming Sunday we will dedicate our Property Improvement Project Pledges at the very beginning of the worship hour.

That's right, all of our Bob the Builder announcements, silly slides, worship moments, and congregational mailings comes to fruition this Sunday! At the very beginning of worship the Property Improvement Team will receive your pledge cards (using fresh paint trays as Offering Plates!) and then we will dedicate those sacred promises to the work of renewing our church, our facilities, and our grounds!

Which makes my scripture selection for this Sunday seem a bit odd. At least, at first blush.

This Sunday I'll be preaching from Matthew 21:12-17. You'll find the passage at the end of this blog post. We are most familiar hearing it during the Season of Lent, where the dominant image is Jesus, well, casting out the money changers.

You can see why it is a funny choice, right?

But we are so quick to jump to the part of the story where Jesus is tipping over tables and chasing people of out the temple that we miss the beauty and power of his words. "My house shall be a house of prayer for all people."

As a people of faith we testify that our church is a House of the Lord, and if that is the case then, well, Jesus has just given us our marching orders. The House of the Lord shall be a house of prayer, not just for us but for all people. This Sunday, on the same Sunday when we dedicate our pledge cards and bless our Property Improvement Project and the good work we will do for the House of the Lord at First Christian Church Scottsdale scripture reminds us who we are and what we are to be about.

Come join us this Sunday as we dedicate our Property Improvement Pledges, as we celebrate the mission of our church, and as we strive to make this House of the Lord a house of prayer for all people!

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Matthew 21:12-17

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be a house of prayer for all people”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read,“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself”?’

He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.