Like many other denominations, The Episcopal Church has developed a series of courses that are intended to help make the Church a safe place. We have courses called Safeguarding God’s Children, Preventing Sexual Harrassment in the Church, and Preventing Sexual Exploitation in the Church. Those who work with children and youth, clergy, employees, vestries, and others are required to take this training.
I’ve been thinking it would be helpful to add a course to help our leaders recognize and address other behaviors that compromise the wellbeing of our communities of faith. To be truly safe places – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – our congregations and schools need to be havens of blessing and places of peace where people know they will not be subjected to emotional terrorism, disrespectful criticism, gossip, bullying, power and control tactics, and other such characteristically unchristian behaviors.
Well-meaning clergy and leaders often allow people to behave in these ways because of some notion that disruptive behavior has as much of a place in the Church as any. We’ve been heard to say, “Bless her heart, that’s just Mattie. We’ve just learned to tolerate her.” Hmmmm… Really? Why would we tolerate behavior that undermines our efforts to serve Christ “in unity, constancy, and peace?” Why would we ignore words and actions that are in stark contrast to the Baptismal Covenant in which we promise to “persevere in resisting evil…proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ…seek and serve Christ in all persons…strive for justice and peace…respect the dignity of every human being?”
My interest in this topic is heightened by next Sunday’s Gospel (John 2:13-22). There is Jesus standing in the Jerusalem temple as Feast of Passover was drawing near. The scribes and Pharisees he has encountered so far in his ministry make it clear that Jerusalem, the center of their power and influence, is a dangerous place for him. Nevertheless, it is the center of religious life, and the temple is the most sacred of places. It is natural that he would want to be there in spite of the risks. Jerusalem is the holy city of that time and the temple its most holy place. One would expect it to embody all that invokes the most holy feelings. In a people set apart, commanded to behave in “peculiar” ways, one would expect no less. Yet what Jesus finds is no different from the street outside the temple gates.
Some scholars say that his outrage came from the dishonest commerce going on. Animals offered for ritual sacrifice had to meet rigid requirements. Those purchased from approved temple vendors were guaranteed to be acceptable. Those brought from home may not be. Purchases could only be made with temple currency. It has been suggested that both the sacrifice acceptance policies and the required currency exchanges were opportunities for corruption that created a scandal and an additional burden for the poor. These abuses would have given Jesus adequate cause for righteous indignation but he may have had reason enough without them.
Quite simply, this holy place looked just like the marketplace. What should have been a model of another way of living, of relating to one another, an example of God's ways, had become no different from the ways of the world. “The model of God had become the mimic of man.” Jesus expected his Father’s House to be a House of Prayer.
As Christians, we are called to be witnesses to our neighbors, not their clones. If our beliefs do not lead to conforming our lives to the life of Christ, what is the point of believing? If the ways in which we conduct our affairs in the Church are indistinguishable from the ways of secular commerce, how can we sincerely pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?”
Our Baptismal Covenant calls us to be peculiar in the eyes of the world. Our presence in divine worship expresses our desire to do so for the purpose of affirming Christ's presence wherever we may be. It is not an easy task. But it is a task of such importance that it gives our lives a richness of meaning and purpose that transcends anything offered by the world.
The history of the world, and especially our religious history, suggests that sin can always draw us from our best intentions. Will we continue to be tempted to think churches should be run more like business instead of suggesting that business would be better if they were run more like Church? Will we look for salvation in self-help publications instead of the holy habits of prayer, Sabbath keeping, offerings, and worship? Like Paul, we find ourselves saying "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do."
I submit that critical, disrespectful, grouchy, disruptive behavior should not be tolerated in our communities of faith any more than Jesus tolerated those unholy behaviors in the temple. Each one of us can be a better manager of our own behavior and attitude. We can also watch over one another in love and confront our sisters and brothers in Christ when their words and deeds have a negative impact on the safety and sanctity of our faith communities.
There are times when to be “nice” is to avoid being “Christian.” After all, Jesus was anything but “nice” to the people he confronted in the temple. Take comfort from the spectacle of Jesus overturning the tables of the moneychangers. Know that this same strength, courage, and righteousness upholds us every day of our lives and especially when we need to say to the Matties of our congregations, “No! That tone is not acceptable here among us. It disturbs our peace and Jesus has higher expectations.”