Turning

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”John 2:13-17

Early Sunday morning we turned clocked forward, and even though it really is not spring yet, it seemed to help change the seasons. In this season of turning for us, I am finding out how powerful it is to get rid of old things, and how much of my life is exposed when the common commerce of daily life is suddenly put away. We can find holy things, memories and relationships, that have withered with the profanity of daily life. Moving furniture and changing location, the light seems different, revealing scars, battle wounds and reminders of victories hidden by the noise. We can renew in an unexpected way, be reborn to the truth of who were are called to be and for what we have been made.

Jesus comes to the temple, that holy place which was to be a house of prayer for all people. It had been turned into main street, commerce alley, and there was not path to God there, only trinkets for the wealthy and relics for poor pilgrims. There was no space for the holy because the bizarre/bazaar was in full swing. When we get hung up with money and commerce, it is surely hard to be prayerful and Jesus found it infuriating. His home, his sanctuary was a market and there was no place for the poor, the indigent or the sick. There was only a place for those with money in their hands.

Today, in this season of turning and new life, I want to be grateful for the opportunity to grow and experience new life with empty hands. I want to be open to the holy and the sacred and let the worry about the lucre be beyond my grasp. May we all make space this day for the holy so that those who have nothing might find a home in God.