In which I struggle to make a paper cross and realise the Holy Week events didn’t match up for the people involved. Remembering Jesus getting angry and how that might have encouraged opposing parties and supporters alike. A poem from Mary Oliver with a reminder to pay attention.
At a day of preparation for this week which to me is holy, we made paper crosses. We used paper which was white on one side and patterned on the other. The making involved folding, which meant we ended up with plain white bits clashing with patterns and flowers hanging upside down!
This was frustrating, exasperating, irritating, even anger making. We questioned if we would ever get it right and were tempted to give up before we’d hardly started.
Maybe the lesson was in the trying. We were about to begin a week of meditating on stories which are hard to match up, even though we’ve had 2,000 years of making them fit.
When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, with a jubilant crowd cheering him on, he cried over that city. How did that fit for anyone feeling triumphant?
When he visited the temple, he got angry (I mean angry – he overturned tables and used a whip!) He drove out anyone taking up prayer space and making money out of worship.
Maybe that did match up; both for the revolutionaries who were ready for violence and the religious authorities who believed Jesus was a threat to the establishment and to them, but that was just the beginning of the week. There were more surprises in store.
Read about Jesus getting angry and cleaning the temple in the Bible:
Matthew 21:12 – 17 Jesus clears the temple and leaves Jerusalem for Bethany.
Mark 11:12-17 Jesus curses a fig tree and clears the temple.
Luke 19:45- 48 Jesus clears the temple.
Sometimes it’s worth sticking with something, even when it looks like it’s never going to match up!
Here’s a poem by Mary Oliver, which reminds us again to pay attention.
Praying.
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
Mary Oliver, from her book “Thirst.”
What have you seen today which is a doorway into thanks and a silence in which another voice may speak?
Wander well towards Easter.
Mandy.
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