"There is a story told about a man who visited a church. He parked his car and started toward the front entrance. Another car pulled up nearby, and the irritated driver said to him, "I always park there. You took my place!" The visitor went inside and found that Sunday School was about to begin. He found an adult class, when inside, and sat down. A class member approached him and said, "That's my seat! You took my place!" The visitor was somewhat distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing. After Sunday School, the visitor went into the sanctuary and sat down in any empty pew. Within moments another member walked up to him and said, "That's where I always sit. You took my place!" The visitor was troubled but said nothing. Later, as the congregation was praying for Christ to be present with them, the visitor stood, and his appearance began to change. Scars became visible on his hands and on his sandaled feet. Someone from the congregation noticed him and cried out, "What happened t you?" The visitor replied, "I took your place."
(Dr. B. Richard Dennis: "Over My Dead Body!" Sermon Resources, Internet, illustrations@clergy.net, March 12, 2006)

This is an extreme version of a church that has lost its way…one that has forgotten that church should be a holy place, one where God is most present. The church with its parking places, pews and seats had become an idol. The congregants had claimed ownership over what cannot be owned.
The lessons appointed for Lent III juxtapose the Ten Commandments with Jesus' cleansing of the temple. The commandments spell out how we are to be in relationship to God and to one another. Each is about a different form of idolatry, forbidding that anything be put in the place of God. Hence, the ten are summed up in the first commandment.
The temple was the center of worship for God's people and was to be a house of prayer for all. In those days a temple tax had to be paid, and it couldn't be paid with the coin of the realm, as that carried the image of Caesar. Hence, the money needed to be exchanged. Those doing so were extorting to the extent that they were devaluing the coin greatly and charging exorbitant fees. Further, animal sacrifice was essential for a number of reasons. The priests were often rejecting the animals brought from home by the poor, and insisting they buy animals or birds from the temple stock. The latter, also, were way overpriced. Further, the money changers and animal sellers were conducting business in the Court of the Gentiles, preventing non-Jews from worshiping there.
Jesus became very angry and drove them out crying, "Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" When challenged about his relationship to God, Jesus replied with the assertion that, were the temple destroyed, he would raise it in three days, a reference to his death and resurrection. In this encounter he made a direct challenge to the religious authorities, making his death inevitable.
We know how far challenging religious authorities gets us even today. There is a power there that is easy to underestimate. When under attack for unholy practices the church comes out swinging. It is often demonstrated in a rigid valuing of the institution over the people of God. It can be expressed in religious certainty…an assumption of knowing what God thinks…and imposing that self-righteous position upon the challengers. As a church we can be fraught with idols…our buildings, our denomination, our wealth…the list is endless. In recent years even obvious egregious harm done to children, exclusion of those deemed unworthy and blindness to the suffering of others have been defended or stonewalled.
The challenge for each of us during Lent is to look at the holy places in our lives, the places where God is to be most present. We are called to expose the idols that have taken the rightful place of our creator. Are our churches truly holy? Are we living with one another as Jesus challenged us to live? Are we places of hospitality to the stranger and the outcast? Is our worship "God focused" and life giving to our people? What about our relationships in our families – our spouses and partners, our elderly parents, and our children? Are they places of holiness, ones grounded in love, vulnerability and openness? The same tests can be applied to our friendships and work – is God present or are they tainted with self-interest and idols? Finally, we, ourselves, are called to holiness. We are to be in God and God is in us. Are we loving vessels for our Creator? We are called to holiness individually, in our relationships, and as a community. To the extent that they are not indwelling places for God we are called to confront, to transform, to repent and to begin again. It may take righteous anger, but, if it is motivated by love anything can happen. Love consecrates and transforms the unholy into the holy. It is by love, and for love and to love that we were created. We are guided by that ultimate love that "took our place!"
May each of us find this Lenten season to be one of renewed faith and holiness. Let us pray:

"Gracious God, in your love you did not leave us to stumble in confusion, to find our own way. You gave us your word, your law, to show us the way. Give us the grace and the wisdom, loving God, to obey your commandments, to forsake our foolish ways, and to walk in gladness your way, all the days of our lives. In the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who now walks for us the way of the cross, we pray. AMEN

(William H. Willimon, "Pulpit Resource," 3/23/03)