John 2:13-17

Tearful Anger

Entering the Gentile Outer Courts
The same ones he walked through with sacred awe at twelve

Confidently and gleefully approaching sages of the Torah—
His parents a day’s travel toward home
His brothers harassing the caravan camels owned by richer Passover pilgrims—
Heading back from Spring Break for the boredom of Hebrew School

Remembering sitting still
And sharing deeply seated and emerging faith

Now this same smooth and pristine limestone floor
Even now only forty-five years out of God’s primordial quarry
Smeared with goat droppings
Sandals sliding on steaming brown cow piles
Spots of cool white pigeon slime

But worse—that once quiet and holy place
Now flagged wall to wall with pious looking dealers in shekels—
“Only ½ shekel to turn your Drachmas and Denarius into currency suitable for God!”

Lord, the Temple tax itself is only a half shekel—This is highway robbery!

Now twenty-nine years old
The Nazarene gathering up a remembered zeal
And fashioning the goats’ leads into a whip
Gathering up an anger
Gathering up a sweet and sad memory of a time
When Gentiles could actually pray with outstretched arms
Lifted in reverence to the Hebrew God they humbly dared approach

Is nothing sacred anymore?

                                                                                          —David Blauw

Romans 4:16-25

Oh LORD, thank you for giving us an example and inspiration in Jesus, who embodied living life fully. Thank you for the invitation to have righteousness reckoned to us both individually and collectively by faith in him. Thank you for the invitation to live life by faith and hope, liberated from the constraints of legalism. Thank you for affirming the examples of faith and hope that have come before us. Please inspire us and continue to do this among us. Help us to continue to “hope against hope” that you will move, and are moving, in ever-increasingly magnificent ways among all people. To this end, we still pray for more faith. May any righteousness that You reckon to your people glorify your church, your kingdom, and ultimately, You. Amen.

—Scott D. Parrott

Psalm 25:1-10

This Psalm has often been pointed to as an instruction manual on how to pray:

• praise: “to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul” (1)
• call for God’s action: “do not let those who wait for you be put to shame” (3)
• motive for our action: “lead me in your truth” (5)
• forgiveness: “do not remember the sins of my youth” (7)
• resolution and trust: “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.” (10)

But it is the tone of this Psalm that throws me a bit. David seems to be ordering God to teach him, lead him, and forgive him (3-5) — not asking for God’s love and strength. In verse 6 it is as if God needs a reminder to be merciful. Really?

I cannot help but feel that while David is calling out to God for direction and acknowledging his trust in God, he is doing so with the tone of a parent reminding a child of their daily chores.

Is there a difference between asking for forgiveness and telling God to forgive? Between requesting direction and ordering the understanding of God’s ways?

I believe tone matters because it puts the power back on God — but that it matters for us too. Could David’s prayer have as much to do with ordering ourselves as it did with requesting the assistance of the Lord? When he says, “Be mindful of your mercy” is he asking this of God or himself? If we are the hands and feet of Christ in this world, then should prayer be about directing ourselves to action as well as asking for God’s love in the process? It just comes down to: whom are we directing?

—Becky Schmidt