March 19, 2006          Read: John 2:13-22

Recently a friend told me an interesting story about doing her spring housecleaning.  In the process, she found what she thought was an old wire from a second telephone line.  Because the second line had been taken out a long time ago, she believed it was safe to cut the old wire and get rid of it.  Well, you guessed it – she cut the wire for the line that was still in use.  By doing so, she cut off her connection to her telephone service, the internet, and emergency services if she needed them.

The connection was not restored until she got a new telephone jack and screwed the wires back together inside of it.  Then she had not only her telephone service back, but she also had a new connection through the new jack. 

This is, in a nutshell, the entire history of the relationship of human beings to God.  Every time God gets the connection in order, we cut it.  There are too many examples to discuss them all today, but let me name a few of the stories: Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark, the Israelites in the desert under Moses.  Our history is one of cutting our connection to God.  Every time God tried to repair that connection, we kept cutting the line. 

So God came up with a way to fix it once and for all – he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to install that new phone jack that would give us a secure connection to God. 

But he had to deal with a situation where the people had once again fallen away.  They had cut the wires that connected them to God.  Instead of following God’s rules, they set up their own.  They brought moneychangers into the Temple.  They made a profit selling animals for sacrifice.  They turned God’s house into a marketplace.  It was great for making money, but it wasn’t so great by God’s reckoning. 

We often ask ourselves the question: What Would Jesus Do?  That is always a good question.  But today I want to ask: What Did Jesus Do?  What did he do when he saw that our connection to God had been severed once again? 

Our answer is that he set about repairing that connection.  He put it back together so securely that can never take it apart again.  And we ended up with a new telephone jack, so to speak; a new and better connection to God that will work so long as we’re willing to plug into it, to accept God’s grace into our lives.   

What Jesus did was to come and fix all the messy wiring that we have ever created.  He plugged us all into that new phone jack on the wall and gave us a direct line to God.  He encourages us to use it – toll free – any time we want.  Because God doesn’t ever want to be out of touch with us.