This text leading up to the Jewish Passover celebration and what we call Holy Week invites us to pray with all our senses. This poem, this prayer came from my meditation on the text.
Christ’s Passion for His Dwelling Place
Me. My Soul. His House. His Home.
Your radiant presence in me.
You are welcome here. Now.
Forgive us Jesus,
for bartering and buying your mercy.
Forgive us Jesus,
for obscuring the path to your home for others.
Open our eyes Jesus
to see your dwelling here on earth, within.
Open our hearts, minds and bodies
to your transforming work of renewal
of what is sickly, broken, dying, and dead in our lives.
Ignite the flame of your passion within.
For us. For them. For me.
Your dwelling place.
Amen
John 2:13-22 (NLT)
It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”
But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
“All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
“What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
For Reflection and Prayer:
As you listened to the text, was there a word, phrase or image which caught your attention? Gently repeat the word or phrase, giving it room to settle deeply in your heart.
Reflect on what you heard. Relish the words. Notice how the word or words affected you. Which emotions stirred within you? Be with what is there for you. You might choose to journal about what you heard.
Respond to what you heard and reflected on in your prayer with God. Is there a prayer of which rises within you?
Rest in God as you simply be and entrust yourself to God in the quiet.
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