meditation 5: In the Temple

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Occasional Impressions Prayer Collections Meditations Meditation 5: Direct Action in the Temple Lord, you were angry, weren’t you? You went into the Temple and you threw things about. I’m angry sometimes. I sometimes want to throw things about - but I haven’t got the bottle. More often I bottle things up inside me where thoughts can fester and do me harm. Better to let off steam once in a while? The trouble is, it’s so easy for someone else to get hurt - someone you don’t mean to hurt - perhaps someone you don’t even know. And all because I am angry. I hope my anger is worth the trouble. I’m sure yours was. But are you certain no one got hurt - no shins bashed - no bones broken? It was pretty dramatic, wasn’t it - tipping up the tables of the money merchants setting free all those animals and birds? But then they’d been bred to be sacrificed - there was no other future for them. Quite an honour, really, if you think about it - sacrificed in the Temple to the glory of God. In any case, they wouldn’t stand much chance set free - they’d never be able to feed themselves - probably fall victim to some predator - but I suppose that’s nature, isn’t it. It’s the way of the world - your world - the world you fashioned and formed for us to live in. The world we can never quite get the hang of living in. We mess up, we get angry. We hurt people. You made the world for them too. And in any case, it wasn’t very wise, that, was it - turning over the tables in the Temple? Were you trying to set up a confrontation? Or was it just anger at the misuse of your Father’s house? I know: you felt hurt - that sort of thing should never be happening. I know I’m sometimes confrontational - it’s not a very pretty sight - and I always seem to choose the wrong issue to go to war over. Just feeling hurt isn’t enough. And that business with the fig tree, what had it done wrong? Didn’t it deserve a second chance? You give us a second chance there is time for repentance - for turning around and coming to you again. But that fig tree had to wither. Was all that just so that you could teach your friends a lesson? Lord, this week is so confusing. For your disciples then, certainly, but also for us today. It wasn’t that even you were hurt, or angry or confused, was it? Lord abide by us in our confusion. Amen.

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