Saturday, January 18, 2014

Cleansing the Temple

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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.”

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore 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. John 2:13-22


Take These Things Away - a song of the heart

The poinsettias and candles
no more make Christmas than
lilies can make it become Easter here
but a humble heart can make room for all.

The lights and noise of Epiphany
the palms and the veiled cross of Holy Week
the litanies and the processions
only invite our broken hearts.

There is no sacrifice that love
desires, needs or demands today
and there is no decoration or gilding
that can mask an empty shell.

What we offer is an honest need
a broken heart and broken dreams
what we offer is what the Creator desires
the sweet childlike need for God's love.

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