third
sunday in lent
Are
you ready to change the rhythm of your week?
“If Sabbath is to do its gracious
work in us it must become a life rhythm.” —J.D. Walt
Lord, give today a new beat. I
release my noise to You; I submit to You, I and trust you to fill my soul with
your song.
Opening Prayer:
Almighty God, you know that we have
no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies
and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities that
may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt
the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP
218)
John 2:13-22
When it
was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the
temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others
sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove
all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of
the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he
said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”
His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume
me.”
The
Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority
to do all this?”
Jesus
answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They
replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going
to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After
he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they
believed the scripture and the words
that Jesus had spoken. TNIV
Prayer of Commitment:
Lord Jesus Christ, are there tables
in our lives that need overturning? Have we made worship into a market? Are we
more interested in sheep and cattle and getting-it-right than in you? Pull out
your whip; scatter our coinage, and set us right again. Amen.
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