Welcome to Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church 

Where the love of Christ builds a harbor of acceptance, inspiration, 

Fellowship, service and joy. 

You enrich our worship with your presence. 

"When we say welcome we mean it!"

Sound Recording only - Podcast

It is not possible to pass the collection plate at our live home church.

  We do need your contributions.  Please sent your check, made out to Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church to:

Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church

c/o Monty Rice

1298 Warren Rd.

Cambria, CA 93428

 If this is your first time here, WELCOME. 

If you have a prayer request, please send to:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church-PCUSA 

2700 Eton Rd. • Cambria, CA 93428 

Call or text 805.395.1521 

Info: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. website: www.safeharborcambria.org 

The Gathering
At the tolling of the bell, please quietly prepare your heart for worship.

Meditation Music Deborah Farrand
Welcome and Announcements

† Call to Worship (in unison)

All: The Glory of God fills all creation. All that is, exists by Divine imagination. God’s laws and decrees are the boundary settings for all eternity. We have our being in Almighty God. We seek God’s wisdom. We sing God’s praises. We come now to worship our Lord of All, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Psalm Prayer of Praise
Liturgist: Our prayer of praise is from the lectionary, Psalm 19.
All: The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. The Lord is my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Hymn of Praise # 634 To God Be the Glory

Prayer of Confession
(In unison) God of Mercy, there are things in life that make us angry. There are things about our behavior that make us angry and upset about why we did or did not do or say something. Lord we understand that anger is a human response, but help us to respond as you would have us do. Help us to channel the anger that we emote into a way that is instructed and molded by you, to respond with light and love and action. Now please hear our silent confessions...
(In unison) God, open our eyes and quicken our hearts so we may convert a response of anger into service to your Kingdom. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon New Creations in Christ
The Sharing of the Peace

The Word

Hymn of Preparation #452 Open the Eyes of My Heart

Leader: Listen for the Word of God.
People: Our ears are open and our hearts are ready to receive.

Scripture: John 2 13-22

Leader: The Word of the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Glory Rev. Eugenia Gamble

Hymn of Response # 769 For Everyone Born

The Prayers

Call to Prayer: Hymn #466 Come and Fill Our Hearts with Your Peace

Prayers of the People

Response to Prayer Hymn #710 We Are an Offering
Prayer of Gratitude and Dedication

Invitation to the Table

Communion Hymn # 501 Feed Us, Lord

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
The Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
Words of Institution
The Communion of the People
Prayer After Communion

The Parting

† Hymn of Parting # 753 Lord Make Me a Channel
† Charge and Benediction

Musical Response Go With Us, Lord

Go with us, Lord, and guide the way, through this and every coming day;

That in your Spirit strong and true, our lives may be our gift to you.

After worship: Celebrate “Gifts of Women Sunday”, sharing a story or photo.

(March is Women’s History Month and March 8 is International Women’s Day.)

CURRENT PRAYER LIST 

Members of our community that are lonely, hungry and sick.

If you would like to support the work of Safe Harbor Church financially: 

Tax deductible checks may be made to Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church. 

During our period of isolation, please mail checks to: 

Monty Rice 1298 Warren Road Cambria CA 93428 

WHEN WE SAY “ WELCOME! ”, WE MEAN IT! 

 Jesus Deals with those that Misuse the Sanctuary…John 2:13-22…3/7/21

John 2:13) The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14) In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15) Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16) He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17) His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18) The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19) Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20) The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21) But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22) After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Issues in John: John’s Gospel is significantly different from the other three gospels. John is not as concerned with chronological biography as the others. His work is mystical and mysterious. It is full of signs and symbols. It is much more concerned with theology than history. Some scholars joke that John is more concerned with truth than facts. Simply put, the Gospel of John is written to nurture faith in Jesus so that the individual might gain “life.” It is somewhat evangelistic in tone but more concerned with addressing a community of believers in order to help them strengthen their faith in the midst of crises. The issues they faced were 1.conflicts over authority, 2.the crisis of martyrdom, 3.the threat of heresy, 4.the mission to the Samaritans and 5.how to form a community identity apart from the synagogue. The issue for John is RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ and that means for religious and personal life NOW.

Relationship of this text to the other Gospel accounts: All of the Gospels contain a story of Jesus’ cleansing the Temple. Each varies in details. Only John places this story at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The other three have it very near the end. In Matthew, Luke and Mark, the emphasis is on Jesus’ Galilean ministry. Each only mentions Jesus going to Jerusalem once. John records several different visits to Jerusalem and at least three Passover visits.

Passover: The greatest of all the Jewish feasts, Passover is celebrated on 15 Nissan (March/April) and commemorates the most significant event of Israel’s life…the Exodus from Egypt and the subsequent gift of the Law at Sinai. The Exodus was the primary event of deliverance for Jews and the Law was the means for right relationship with God. Every Jewish adult male who lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem was required to attend the feast in Jerusalem. By this time, Jews were scattered all over the known world and it was the deepest hope of every Jew to be able to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem at least once in a lifetime. Pilgrims came from near and far, often at great expense and sacrifice. Estimates are that as many as 2 ¼ million Jews would gather at the Temple for the feast.

The money changers: Every Jew over the age of 19 had to pay an annual Temple Tax for the maintaining of the Temple and the continuation of the sacrifices that took place there. The tax was ½ shekel or about 2 days wage. Each was required to pay with his own half shekel. The tax had to be paid with Jewish coins because Roman and other coins had pictures of emperors and gods on them and were considered unclean and not acceptable to pay a dept owed to God. The Talmud (authorized commentary on the Law) allowed that those who changed coins for the paying of the Temple Tax could charge a fee for this service on each half shekel changed. It was not uncommon for it to cost an additional day’s wage to get the ½ shekel to pay the tax. This was especially difficult for pilgrims who had come from long distances often spending all that they had to get there. Poor pilgrims were being fleeced at an exorbitant rate in the name of religion and the wealth accrued to the Temple was fantastic.

The sellers of animals: Often a visit to the Temple included the offering of a sacrifice either of thanks for a favorable journey or as a covering for sin. The Law required that animals for sacrifice had to be perfect and without blemish. For that reason inspectors were in place to make sure that animals were perfect. One could be pretty sure that animals brought from the outside would not pass inspection and new, acceptable animals had to be purchased at the Temple. This also led to extortion. For example, a pair of doves bought outside the Temple cost 1 day’s wage, inside they would cost 18 days’ wage.

The Temple was divided into four courts. First was the Court of the Gentiles. This was the only place Gentiles who desired to learn about God were allowed to enter. Next came the Court of the Women, then the Court of the Israelites (men). The inner court was the Court of the Priests (where the sacrifices were performed). The money changers and sellers were in the Court of the Gentiles. This was all Gentiles could see of the faith of Israel.

Jesus’ anger in this text was INTENSE! He was faced with extortion in the name of God, desecration of the Holy Place, worship without reverence, a sacrificial system that the prophets for centuries had been decrying as irrelevant, useless and displeasing to God (see Hosea 8:13 and Amos 5:21-24, for example) and the ludicrous presentation of the faith to the Gentiles. Jesus was fully human and fully enraged. Remember that anger is not sinful. Some anger leads to sinful action, but feelings of anger are not sinful.
There are four words we translate as anger from the Greek. Parogismos is anger that is provoked when the ego is threatened. It erupts in blind rage that is intended to destroy that which exposes guilt or weakness. It is resoundingly condemned in the Bible.
Diaprio means ‘to divide with a saw’, to grind one’s teeth or to cut one’s heart. It is used in the story of Stephen when the priests who stone him to death say that he ‘cut them to the heart and gnashed their teeth on him. Thymos is a strong passion or emotion of the mind (understood to be the seat of anger). This is sometimes translated as wrath. It is dangerous but also warm and passionate. It gives courage in the face of danger but it can also overwhelm and lead to tragedy. Finally, there is orge, this is the word that is always used of Jesus’ and of God’s anger in the New Testament. It is an instrument by means of
which evil is destroyed. It is anger that is considered a healthy response to an intolerable situation. This is what Jesus is experiencing in this text.

Word Study

Vs. 12: went down – from Cana which is on a hill. Capernaum is by the sea.
Vs. 13 – of the Jews – you can see from this phrase that the community is breaking away from it’s identity as a reformed movement within Judaism and seeing themselves outside the mainstream.
       Went up – this is a specific verb used to denote a journey to a holy city on a mountain.
Vs. 14 – temple – literally the Temple precincts or the court of the Gentiles.
Vs. 15 – whip of cords – no weapons or sticks were allowed in the Temple. He probably made a kind of scourge from the reeds and rushes used to feed animals.
       Drove them out – literally drove the whole pack of them out.
Vs. 16 - ! – the word orge is not used in this passage but is implied. The exclamation point is intended to make that clear.
Vs. 17 – zeal – the is the word for a kind of burning jealousy. It is aroused because Jesus feels that the temple authorities have set their priorities above God’s and made a mockery of the temple and the one to which it is intended to point.
Vs. 18 – sign – they are asking for a warrant or some proof that he has the authority over temple affairs. Only a miraculous proof of his messiahship could have been enough.
Vs. 19 – raise – this word is almost always used of the resurrection and alerts us to a second level of symbolic meaning of the text.
Vs. 22 – scripture – there is no known scripture to this effect, but many early texts were lost to us.

Questions for Personal Reflection

1. Do you think that there are ways that the church exploits people today? If so, how?
2. What contributes to reverence of worship for you? What things make worship less meaningful for you?
3. In what ways do you think that the faith is poorly portrayed to unbelievers? How might those limitations be overcome?
4. What are the ‘tables’ that need to be turned in your community?