Dear all
Happy Third Sunday in Lent! How is your Lenten journey going? Where’s your heart at in terms of your relationship with Jesus? Has God shown you something surprising about your ministry or calling?
“It was almost time for the Passover Festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. There in the Temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons, and also the moneychangers sitting at their tables” (John 2:13, 14).
As we enter this scene, I wonder if this wasn’t what normally happened in and around the temple during the Passover Festival. I suspect it was! Every year, Jesus would have encountered this scene, so why this year, on this occasion, does he decide to upturn the tables of the moneychangers and scatter their coins? And, he doesn’t stop there, he goes on… “and orders those who sold the pigeons, “Take them out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” What had happened, or perhaps changed in Jesus, to arrive at the point of, ‘Enough is enough!’ And, I wonder if there have been moments during this pandemic, when you’ve come to a point of, ‘Enough is enough!’ If Jesus’ radical gospel talks about changing communities and systems, upturning old orders, as Christians, can we be satisfied with structures that perpetuate injustices and inequalities of all kinds? As we reflect on the many people living in the margins, weighed down by oppressive systems, experiencing losses of all kinds, I invite us to reflect on these questions. What tables in your life needs to be overturned? What tables in our society is God calling us to upturn — in his wisdom and strength? When will we say, ‘Enough is enough’? And, more to the point, what will we do about it?
As we participate in God’s kingdom work of overturning systems and structures that disadvantage ‘the other’, may we be encouraged to build strong communities of love, hope and faith as this song reminds us.
For I’m Building A People Of Power
And, here’s the song that some of you caught me singing before the start of the service. A beautiful reminder that hearts need to be transformed in order for God’s purposes to be fulfilled.
Purify My Heart
Thank you so much to all who contributed to our online worship event: Barbara and Julie (readers); Jaynie (prayers) — thank you for your beautiful prayers; Malcolm and Richard for playing for us — we loved the jazzed up version of ‘For I’m Building A People Of Power’. We’ve been truly blessed by your ministry, thank you! And, many thanks to all who came along to this afternoon’s worship event. It’s always a privilege to fellowship together.
Blessings,
Revd Cathy