Tuesday, February 27, 2018

"When Tables Are Overturned" (John 2:13-22)


It isn’t always to be found
in the quietness of our Lenten retreat,
or staring in a mirror at a forehead
marked by an ashen symbol of the cross ... 
startling as that is to see.

It isn’t always to be found
in these forty days, is it, O God?
In our reflection ...
or in our kneeling in repentance ...
or in our prayers for re-created hearts?

“Do away with your selective hearing," 
Jesus shouts,
"and your selective sight, 
and your selective compassion
and your selective worship."

"Do away with your tables,
so carefully placed, 
waiting with shiny currency ... 
perfect to make an unfair exchange.
Do away with the expensive sacrifices …
too expensive for those
who are most needy."

In this Lenten journey,
when we still don’t understand
and when we see no need
for the clearing of those things, 
we see you, Jesus,
methodically making a whip of cords 
and we hear you shout –
yes, SHOUT at us!

"Do away with the distortion of worship!
Cleanse the holy temple!
Take these things out of here!
This IS my Father’s house!"

There might be a time
during this Lenten journey of ours
when our tables are overturned,
our money is scattered,
feathers fly,
and we find ourselves
scrambling.

There might be a time
when all we have left
is worship with no agenda
other than to worship our Lord,
and the forming of words
in our hearts of "injustice" and "love"
by the One
who shouted them at us
in the marketplace.

When tables are overturned
and money is scattered, ...
when righteous indignation
of our Lord is seen and heard, 
the least, the lost and the lonely,
the fear-filled and the grief-stricken
become visible
and we become a voice
in this gouging world.

When tables are overturned, 
we might begin to overturn
shattered lives. 
When feathers fly,
all might begin to soar.


(c) 2012  anna murdock

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