Hi all, as we continue on the next step to Holy Week, let us take time to follow Jesus to the Temple. Blessings and peace be yours in abundance, Pastor Jessica
Holy Monday
Called to action: overturning tables and prayer for the nations
Action: find Coins from other countries in your home or on the internet
We don’t find it easy to talk about money. It might invoke in us a reaction of embarrassment or even anger. It crosses the line between our public faith and our private lives. Yet Jesus often did precisely this in many of his parables. He spoke of what to do with our money. On holy Monday we come to reflect on our relationship with money, our money worries, and what our money choices say about our relationship with God.
Prayer
God of true value and worth, in a world of fools gold and counterfeit currency, may we discern your hallmark of love, to find our treasure. You quiet our hearts and minds as we still our bodies, slow our breathing, and open ourselves to you. Amen.
Scripture
Psalm 56; mark 11:15 – 19
How many of us struggle with money worries? Jesus taught so much about money but we can be afraid too afraid to mention it. When Jesus came into Jerusalem, the first thing he did was to go into the temple; the most holy place of the Jewish people. He was appalled at what he found there: moneychangers who made a profit because people had to change their money into temple coinage to make the offerings. Dealers and animals exploited the people’s need to make sacrifices. Instead of being a place of worship to the glory of God, the temple became a marketplace, a robber’s den. Instead of being a place where God’s grace was available to all, the temple was being used as a way to exploit people’s fate, instead of to explain peoples faith, and to make money at their expense. Jesus overturned their tables and drove them out of the temple. Our fears about money can run deep. Will I have enough? Can I pay the bills? Will I be able to afford the care I need when I’m older? These worries can loom large, even when there is a safety net provided by the state. And, of course in many nations of the world, there is no such protection; many people earn too little to live on; many people struggle to feed their families today, let alone set aside money for the future.
Jesus calls us to overturn the tables of injustice and oppression in our world. Sometimes, we think of faith as a private matter; they appear really spiritual. But in reality Jesus shows us that faith changes how we act; faith without deeds is worthless. He challenges injustice and inequality, coming to cast down the mighty from their thrones and raise up the humble and meek. So we have to look onwards in decided deciding how we use our money responsibly.
What does it mean to have enough beyond that?
Is our disposable income simply available for our own leisure activities?
Are we making choices that are generous and outward-looking?
Will we acknowledge that our money is not narrowly ours but is held in trust from God to wisely and generously be used?
How does that change things?
Money is the crunch point where we choose to put our principles into practice or not.
Look up online or find a coin in your home from another country. Share what we know about that country as we focus on money and acknowledge inequality and injustice.
What practical action can we take in response? Where do we need to overturn tables? Where do we need to take a stand? Is our church outward-looking, engaged in the struggle for justice? Personally is there a trusted place where we can honestly be held accountable for the way we choose to spend our money?
Is there any way that we want to change our own use of money as and we embrace the challenge to use it responsibly
Will you pray that this house will be a House of prayer for all nations?
Think of the many different countries they represent –
Prayer
Bless all the countries of the world, rich and poor, strong and weak, and give us courage to challenge and change injustice and inequality, both locally and globally. We pray for all who are constrained by debt, living under the weight of money worries, feeling unable to break free from the burden of the past. We pray for people who are hungry today because they cannot afford the food they need and for all who struggle to pay the bills. We pray for all who are afraid today; we pray for all who fear unemployment, for all who are fearful that they will not have enough money to provide for their needs. We pray for all those who are afraid of the future; we pray for the changing face of finance, for those who are offering fair terms of finance, for all who are working to encourage a good practices of money management, and for all who are supporting people in moving through debt to get their finances on a firmer footing. Oh, God, overturn the tables of our false values, where there are unfair trades or unjust systems. Recruit us to the cause of justice, to unfreeze our fear, undo our Indifference, unlock our compassion, and enable our hands to work and act a move for you.
Silence
In silence we reflect on what one thing each of us could do to over turn the tables of injustice or to use our own money more responsibly. could we join a credit union or volunteer with the food bank? Could we offer to support to a charity or commit to buying fairly traded goods or perhaps decide to review our own income and expenditure with a trusted friend? In silence we place the coins back around the table around a candle as a sign of our commitment to this one action; once all the coins are placed on the table, the candle is then lit.
Scripture
Matthew 7:21
Prayer
Lord of all nations, overturned the tables of our hearts; drive out all selfishness and complacency that we may be a living temple for your glory. Strengthen us with the resolve we offer today; may we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you. Amen.