Kathleen Ryan, ARCWP, and Deven Horne led the Upper Room Liturgy with the theme: look at our everyday practices, see where we are stuck, flip some tables, and make some changes! Kathie’s homily reflection is printed below the readings.
A Reading from the Works of Gandhi
I wish to live in peace in the midst of a bellowing storm howling round me, I have been experimenting with myself and my friends by introducing religion into politics.
Let me explain what I mean by religion. It is not the Hindu religion
which I certainly prize above all other religions, but the religion which transcends Hinduism, which changes one’s very nature, which binds one indissolubly to the truth within and whichever purifies.
It is the permanent element in human nature which counts no cost too great in order to find full expression and which leaves the soul utterly restless until it has found itself, known to its Make and appreciated the true correspondence between the Maker and itself.
Everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves and recreates. That informing power is God.
These are the inspired words of Gandhi a disciple of the Holy One and we affirm these words by saying: Amen
A Reading from the Gospel of John
Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my God’s house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.
These are the inspired words of John, a disciple of Jesus. We affirm these words by saying: Amen
Top of Form
Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my God’s house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.
These are the inspired words of John, a disciple of Jesus. We affirm these words by saying: Amen
Top of Form
Kathie’s Homily Starter:
Jesus spent his life modeling love, love for his friends and enemies. He practiced non-violence all the way to the cross. So why the yelling and flipping of tables. Perhaps Jesus is yelling and flipping tables to say to everyone who will listen: Wake up! Be aware! This is a holy temple and this practice of money changing has to go, stop with the greed and take care of the poor. I just learned this week there are over 2000 verses in scriptures telling us to take care of the poor. Our creator knows us so well, even with 2000 reminders we still forget the poor. So the Holy One uses other methods to remind us that people are more important than practices.
Today we have the reminder of Gandhi.
If you study Gandhi you discover he had a rocky beginning. He was not always the sweet smiling face that we see in pictures. It took him a while before he figured out how to live a life of non-violence and focus on the poor. Gandhi had to flip a lot of tables inside himself as well as in his culture before he was able to walk the life of peace in the everyday “bellowing storm.”
This gospel passage is commonly referred to as “the cleansing of the temple”. But Jesus said he is the temple. So you know that that means: You and I are temples too. Oh great time for a cleaning. During lent we slow down and take inventory of ourselves maybe this scripture passage and peek at Gandhi reminds us to look at our everyday practices, see where we are stuck, flip some tables, and make some changes.
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