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Worship at Home
by John Hinton
w/b 24th March 2024

Overturning tables


Opening Prayer:

Jesus Christ, Redeemer King, your love for us transforms us, your teaching challenges us.

Your life given for us brings us to our knees, your abundance reveals our poverty, your presence comforts and upholds us. Jesus Christ, Redeemer King, we offer you our thanks, our praise & our commitment to follow you.

Amen.


StF 262: All glory, laud and honour

https://youtu.be/HWPv-z2gfLY?si=WIa0lPyuWPBpZacn

Prayer of Confession:

Jesus of Nazareth, born for us in Bethlehem, you humbled yourself for us on a donkey riding to Jerusalem. You called us to follow you…and in easy times we lay down coats for you and spread branches on the road. But then when the going gets tough, when we are called to stand up for you and the things you taught us, we so often we lose our voice, mutter under our breath, turn the other way and do not walk with you but stand rooted to the spot. Forgive us, Lord Jesus, that we so often do not stand up for the kingdom that you spoke about. But no matter how much we deny or betray you, in your mercy, you wipe away our tears of sorrow and regret, you cleanse us from the pain and anguish, and you gently reassure us that our sins, even ours, are forgiven. Amen.

Lord’s Prayer:

Message:

The appointed gospel reading is from Mark, it tells the story of that first Palm Sunday. It was not to be just another point on his journey where teaching and healing were to be offered to any who were prepared to come and listen to his words on the kingdom.  No, he had earlier recognised that it was to be the central point of his ministry, the very purpose of his life

Mark 11:1-11

Message:

‘Hosanna’ they cried, literally meaning ‘Pray, save us’ It was a greeting often used as pilgrims entered the city on their way to the temple, but we can assume that the words took on a greater significance as they were yelled at Jesus.

But the temple was not simply a place of worship, it had by virtue of its central place in the Jewish faith grown not only in size but in economic importance. To put it simply, the temple was one of the largest commercial enterprises in the whole of Palestine.  Our reading today ended with Jesus returning to Bethany for the night. The next day he returned to the Temple and Mark goes on to tell us “Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers."

So, he didn’t go to pray, he didn’t go to worship or to hear scriptures, like any other pilgrim, any other ‘cog in the wheel’ that was part of the business that the temple had become. No, he went to challenge the temple system, with all of the vested interests that had built up around it.  In the unusually violent act of overturning the tables of the money changers he was overturning the entire system.

I would suggest that the events recorded in the streets of Jerusalem, 2000 years ago can be re-enacted in our lives, in our hearts today. Just like the crowd on that first Palm Sunday, perhaps we find it relatively easy to shout “Hosanna” and welcome Christ into the edges of our lives – just inside the walls as it were – and to wave our palm branches as we sing our songs of praise and pray our prayers of adoration.  

But what is our response when, like on that first Palm Sunday, he doesn’t stay at the gate, at the walls around our lives but seeks to enter further…. to travel right into the centre (just as the temple was the Spiritual Centre of the city) and comes up against our vested interests. How do we feel when he tries to turn over our tables? The table piled high with wealth and possessions (and compared to most of world we are incredibly wealthy!). That one overflowing with concerns for ourselves, our selfishness. The one over there - groaning under the weight of negative feelings we show towards our neighbours. The one over there, and there and there!

But it is important to recognise that when Christ overturned the tables of the money changers it was not a destructive but a constructive act. He did not want to destroy the temple but restore it to its correct role as a place of worship free of the contamination of corruption

And so it is with us.  For when Christ challenges and seeks to change us, when he seeks to overturn our tables, he does so in order that the parts of our life which we hold as important can be replaced with things that really are truly important ….and his teaching and his example show us the way. In him we find the truth, the way and the life.



Prayer of Intercession:

 Let us pray for those who feel forsaken, let down by those they loved and trusted. Let us pray for them in the name of Jesus Christ, hailed by the excited crowd who later condemned him to death.  Let us pray for them in the name of the Word of Love crying in desolation on the cross. We pray for:  

Faithful God, come to us when we feel forsaken. When words of love and praise ring hollow in our memory. Come to us with your undying word of everlasting love and hope reborn. In the name of the crucified and risen Christ.

Amen



StF 504: May the mind of Christ my Saviour

https://youtu.be/LklxiZnBiCM?si=MH0KTqRbOwBqytK_

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Blessing:

May the peace of God enfold us,

the love of God uphold us

and the wisdom of God direct us.

Amen.