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Jesus Goes into the temple grounds, sees the money changers and the sellers of sacrificial animals, and throws over tables and makes a whip and chases out the animals and the sellers.

That is Sunday's Gospel.

We also know of times when Jesus challenged the Pharisees on their actions and called them "hypocrites" and "blind guides" (amongst other things).

Was any of that "political?" After all, a common refrain I hear is that pastors are to not preach politics.

But what did Jesus do?  The actions in the Temple criticized the policies and actions of the Temple leaders and how they used their power to make economic demands on others for their benefit.

His ongoing disputes with the Pharisees directly affected everyday life in who was included, who was excluded, and other societal responses to hunger, women, children, and the 'other."

Are those things not "political?"  Or is the concern that we might become "partisan?"

Let me be clear, trying to take the ministry and words of a 1st century Jew living in Roman occupied Palestine and claim they magically line up with any preferred "ism" is like taking a star block and pounding it through a round hole. You might be able to make it fit, but you will lose all of the points!

And, that kind of exercise is not really any different from what he criticized the Pharisees and the Temple leaders for doing with their interpretation of the Law that always seemed to justify their actions.

To quote Anne Lamott- "“You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

We need to hear Jesus as if he is coming to call us to rethink, repent, reform. What needs to be driven out of our lives, our hearts, our minds- so that we too might have "zeal for our Father's house"?