The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith
Today’s Gospel: Matthew 21:12-17
The Temple in Jerusalem was built to be a house of prayer, but it became an important place for commerce as the faithful exchanged Roman coins for Temple currency in order to purchase animals for sacrifice. Jesus became angry and tossed the tables because he realized that commercial priorities were replacing spiritual priorities. From his point of view, the Temple was being misused.
On this Palm Sunday, as we begin the final journey to the cross, what are the tables that need to be turned over in your life? If Jesus were to show up and rummage around in your day to day, what might he want to upend and do away with? How are you allowing yourself to be misused by outside forces that sidetrack you from your true purpose? The Temple was created to be a house of prayer. You were created to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. . . . (and) your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39).
Easter is almost here. These daily reflections from the Cathedral are coming to an end. If you took on any kind of a Lenten discipline this year, that is coming to an end as well. What are you going to do on the Monday after Easter to keep some space open in your life for a relationship with God? Let me be clear, the goal is not to be as religious as possible, but to be as awake as possible. To be awake means to see God in the center of our lives, to see God in the world all around us, and to see the world and the people around us as God sees them. And we cannot take steps toward our true purpose, we cannot keep at bay the forces that would misuse us, if we don’t make room for God. Daily prayer, daily reading of scripture, worshipping with others in community – all of these are ways in which we keep our spiritual priorities clear and remain open to the God who wants nothing more than to love us and help us to become the people we were created to be.
Randy+
O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light riseth up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what thou wouldest have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in thy light we may see light, and in thy straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.