Holy Weekনমুনা

Who remembers the Wednesday night church meal and service? Nothing like oven-baked chicken nuggets, soggy fries, and Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. One of the staples of this pre-church ritual was hot dogs, and a church-renown volunteer leading the charge nicknamed, “The hotdog guy.” He showed up early, fired up the warmers, and served the hungry patrons with the mystery-meat delight.

As we re-evaluated ministry and needed to create more space one of the things that sadly had to be restructured was the cafe. Bye-bye hotdog guy. Right after announcing this change, he informed me he’d still like to prepare and serve hotdogs. I respectfully told him dinner was going to be phased out altogether. He rebuked, “But everybody loves my hotdogs.” Things escalated quickly and ended with him informing me that he was leaving the church.

A week later he asked if we could meet. We sat down over a cup of coffee, and he began, “My wife asked me if we were going back to church, and I told her nope!” She followed up his declaration with, “Why?” He boldly informed her, “Because they got rid of the hotdogs.” Surprised by his answer, she rebuffed, “So we’re leaving the church over hotdogs?” He proceeded to apologize and tell me how the Holy Spirit used that question to open his eyes to the ridiculousness of quitting church over hotdogs. We laugh about it now.

Over time, something within the church became more important to him than the actual reason for the gathering — to worship Jesus in community. The same distraction became unbearable to Jesus on His Monday inside the temple. What was once a storefront designed to sell animals for offerings had turned into a full-on flea market with bartering, arguing, taxing, and bad business deals. After a TikTok worthy toss of tables and chairs, Jesus quotes Isaiah 56:7 in His rebuke, “My temple will be called a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

Before we start hammering the “hotdog guy” we should evaluate our own hearts with the same line, “But you have turned it into…” Have we turned following Jesus into something it’s not? As we prepare to celebrate resurrection life, let us also take a moment to purify the worship of our hearts and redirect our passions to the purity and holiness God intended our lives to reflect. Trade the hotdogs for holiness!