This feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
A children’s prayer I remember describes Jesus as “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” – but that isn’t the Jesus we meet early in this week called “holy” as described in the Gospel of Mark. Instead, we see Jesus in the Temple, incensed by righteous anger, literally overturning tables where merchants charged traveling pilgrims exorbitant interest rates and inflated prices for animals required for Passover festival sacrifices. And when Jesus quotes from the prophet Isaiah, “My House will be called a house of prayer for all nations,” he metaphorically overturns yet more tables, for he is describing the Temple as a holy place not only for the Jewish people, but for all people of all nations who come together to pray. How often are our tables, whether literal or metaphorical, self-serving and limited? May God forgive us for holding on to seats at a table Jesus would have overturned.
The Rev. Suzi Harriff is a Pastoral Partner at Mission Hope Community in Camillus, and currently serves as the part-time Community Initiatives Coordinator at InterFaith Works of CNY.
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