overturning the tables

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Christ Driving the Money Changers out of the Temple, Valentin de Boulogne, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Truth be told, Jesus,
There are lots of tables that need overturning
   in our lives;
Beneath the veneer of respectability
   the tidy rows and neat regulations
      hide dark addictions and angry judgments
         hungry greeds and heartless rejections

We know the pain—and so do those around us—
   of keeping up the facade;
What a relief it would be to have it all
   upset, smashed, scattered, destroyed

So, perhaps, Jesus, today you could pay us a visit
   and help us to radically rearrange
      the furniture of our lives

Amen.
John van de Laar, South African Methodist worship minster
www.sacredise.com
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Mark 11:15-17

And they came to Jerusalem. 
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those 
    who sold and those who bought in the temple, 
    and he overturned the tables of the money-changers 
    and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 
And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 
And he was teaching them and saying to them,
  “Is it not written, 
     ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
      But you have made it a den of robbers.”

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Question

What area of your life needs Jesus to do some radical rearranging?

Do you weep over my city?

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He wept over it by Enrique Simonet via Wikimedia Commons
 
This is my city, Lord:
I’ve flown over it,
driven around it,
walked through it,
and I love it.
Its concrete chasms, its quiet parks,
its massive buildings and its tiny houses,
its suburbs rich and poor.
But most of all, Lord, its people…
My city, Lord. Your city.
Remember, Lord, there was one city
over which you stood and wept.
Do you weep over this city?
With its hunger, its greed, its cruelty?
Its foolishness and heartbreak?
Lord, I believe you do.
 
prayer used over Belfast, Northern Ireland
A Procession of Prayers, edited by John Carden
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Luke 19:41-42 
 
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying,
“Would that you, even you, had known on this day
    the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

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Question

How can you join with God and others 
    in praying for your neighborhood, your city, your country?

To keep the road open to our hearts

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Christ Entering Jerusalem, Duccio via Wikimedia Commons
 
O God, whose dearly beloved Son
   was greeted by the crowd on Olivet
   with hallelujahs,
but who in the same week
   was mocked as he went lonely
   to the Cross,
forbid that our welcome to him should be
   in words alone.

Help us, we beg you, to keep the road open
   for him into our hearts;
and let him find there
   not another crucifixion,
but love and loyalty in which his kingdom
   may be established evermore.
Amen.

Walter Russell Bowie, 1882 – 1969, Episcopal priest from Virginia
The Westminster Collection of Christian Prayers

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Matthew 21:7-11 

They brought the donkey and the colt 
    and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, 
    while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 
The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

    “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
    “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
    “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked,
    “Who is this?”
The crowds answered,
    “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
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Question

During Holy Week, how can you worship Jesus 
    and welcome him as king into your own heart?

Grave cloths that bind me

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Resurrection of Lazarus by Henry Ossawa Tanner via Wikimedia Commons
 
Our Father in heaven, I thank you that you have led me into the light.
I thank you for sending the Savior to call me from death to life.
I confess that I was dead in sin before I heard his call,
    but when I heard him, like Lazarus, I arose.
But, O my Father, the old grave cloths bind me still.
Old habits that I cannot throw off,
    old customs that are so much part of my life
    that I am helpless to live the new life that Christ calls me to live.
Give me strength, O Father, to break the bonds;
    give me courage to live a new life in you;
    give me faith to believe that with your help I cannot fail.
And this I ask in the name of the Savior
    who has taught me to come to you.

prayer from Taiwan
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John 11:38-44 

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. 
It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 
    “Take away the stone,” he said.
    “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 
    “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”  
Then Jesus said, 
    “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. 
Then Jesus looked up and said, 
“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, 
    but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, 
    that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, 
    “Lazarus, come out!”  
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, 
    and a cloth around his face.  
Jesus said to them, 
    “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

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Questions

What experiences from your past still bind you 
    and prevent you from following God as you know you should?

Wash me with your tears

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Jesus Weeps by Linda Richardson
 
Lord, we show you our wounds so that you may heal us.
And even if we do not, you know,
    and you wait to hear our voice.
Do away our scars by tears,
    like the woman in the gospel who washed your feet with hers.
 
You know how to help the weak,
    when there is no one who can prepare the feast,
    or bring the ointment,
    or carry along a spring of living water.
You come yourself to the grave.
 
So come to this grave of mine, Lord Jesus,
    that you would wash me with your tears.
With my dry eyes I have no such tears
    as to be able to wash away my offenses.
With your tears I will be saved, if I am worthy of your tears.
 
With them you will call me out of the tomb of this body and say,
    “Come forth.”
Then my thoughts will not be kept pent up
    in the narrow limits of this body,
    but may go forth to you, and move to the light,
    that I may think no more on the works of darkness,
    but on the works of light.
 
Ambrose of Milan, c.339-397, Bishop of Milan
Fount of Heaven Prayers of the Early Church

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John 11:33-36, 43-44 
 
When Jesus saw her weeping,
    and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping,
    he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
“Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
 
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice,
    “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
    his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen,
    and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them,
    “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

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Question

What wounds do you have that need the tears of Jesus?

obeying the call to follow

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Down the mountain, Mike Moyes

 
Lord, you see my sins more clearly
than I can myself;
you know when I am untruthful
and when I think evil of others.
You see my anger
and unfairness to my friends.
You know how hard it is for me to forgive.

Lord, you know
when I am indifferent
to your Word, the Bible;
how often I forget
to pray;
the times I come unwillingly
to worship;
and yet I turn to you,
when I am in trouble.

Lord, I have sinned,
without considering how much
you love me.

Forgive me and make me clean,
so that I can obey your call
to take up your cross
and follow you.

Maureen Edwards, missionary to Kenya
Prayers Encircling the World

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John 11:14-16

Then Jesus told them plainly,
“Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there,
so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples,
“Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

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Question

When have you followed God’s call for your life, 
    even when you didn’t want to completely?

blessings of a home

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Motif from a small northern French town, Jules Achille Noël via wikimedia commons
 
O God, bless those who have no homes.
Bless those who have to live away from home
  in lodgings and boarding-houses and hotels.
Bless those who have been left alone,
  and who are solitary now.
Bless those who are searching or waiting for a house.
Specially bless young couples who have to live in furnished rooms,
  or with relatives, and who have never had the chance
  to be alone together and to have a home of their own.
Bless those who keep house for other people,
  and who have no house of their own.
Bless old people who are coming to the end in some institution
  which is very comfortable but which is still not home.
Help us who have the blessing of a good home
  to keep an open heart and an open door
  to those less fortunate than ourselves.
This we ask for your love’s sake. Amen.

from the Audenshaw prayers, UK
A Procession of Prayers

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1 Peter 4:8-10
 
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,
as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

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Question

What are some ways you can show hospitality 
    to someone less fortunate than you are?

Make us channels of healing and comfort

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The Potato Eaters, Van Gogh, 1885
 
God of life
God of justice
God of love and mercy
 
God the provider
God our refuge and sustainer
God our comforter
 
Hear the plight of those living in squalid conditions
We present the vulnerabilities of the widows,
orphans, sick, the aged, and unemployed
We present their needs before you
We appeal to you to meet them at their point of need
 
Give them hope and faith in you
Give them courage to soldier on
Give them resilience and tenacity
 
We pray that while the powers that
have tended to ignore their plight
you will be the eyes and ears that see and listen
to their heartfelt needs
 
We pray that you make us the instrument
and the channel of healing and source of comfort;
We appear to you to make us relevant and effective
to those in need.
Amen.
 
complied by Claudio Carvalhaes, professor of worship in New York City
Liturgies from Below: Praying with People at the End of the World
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Psalm 82:1-4 
 
God has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly
    and show partiality to the wicked?
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
    maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
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Question

What is one action you can take
   that could become a channel of blessing for a person in need?

Disturb us, O Lord

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image via Pinterest​
 
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

The Minister’s Manual, Vol. 37, compiled by M.K.W. Heicher

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Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
    according to his power that is at work within us, 
    to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus 
    throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

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Question

When have you felt moved or disturbed to undertake a challenge 
   so big that only God could accomplish it?

As we learn repentance

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image via Pickpic
 
​Lord Christ, grant to us your servants

    the blessing of learning the discipline of repentance.
And as we learn repentance,
    it is also good for us to learn to avoid sin –
    so we will have no need to repent.
 
Those who have escaped a shipwreck
    generally tend to avoid ships and the sea in the future.
By keeping fresh the memory of disaster,
    they honor the second chance you gave them.
They honor their deliverance,
    and are not willing to tempt your mercy all over again.
 
We have escaped once.
Now let us allow ourselves to experience sin’s danger that far only –
    and no farther!
Even if it seems that chances are good for us to escape a second time.
 
Tertullian, c. 155 AD – c. 220, Theologian from Carthage, North Africa
Fount of Heaven: Prayers of the Early Church

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2 Corinthians 7:8-10 
 
I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first,
    for I know it was painful to you for a little while.
Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you,
    but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways.
It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have,
    so you were not harmed by us in any way.
For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin
    and results in salvation.
There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow.
But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.

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Questions

When has God given you 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chances?  

What have you learned about the process of repentance?