Thursday, December 6, 2001

Reread Mark 11:15-19

On this day in history -
1930 - Missionary linguist Frank Laubach wrote in a letter: "Sometimes one feels that there is a discord between the cross and beauty. But...a man has not found his highest beauty until his brow is tinged with care for some cause he loves more than himself. The beauty of sacrifice is the final word in beauty."

Each of the four gospels looks at the episode of Jesus disrupting the temple rituals from a different perspective. Matthew, Mark, and Luke have this event near the end of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem - a sort of final straw. John has it as the first independent action of Jesus that sets the course of his presence among us.

Paying attention to the different words used in these stories we hear about what is to be in the center of our relationship with GOD - Love burning like a fire (John), a place of prayer (Mark), a place of healing (Matthew), and a place of teaching (Luke).

Each of these angles on the story brings beauty with them. Each of these four work with the others. We enter the whole of them through one door or another.

Some of us enter through the door of passionate love and need that honed by prayer and teaching that it might be a healing in our time.

Some of us enter through the ordinances of God, prayer and the like, and need that to come alive with passion and healing power that teaching might flow through the land.

Some of us enter through a time of healing when we were not GOD's child, and then we were GOD's child, and need continued prayer and teaching to set us free to be passionately involved in loving ministries.

Some of us enter through new ideas and images and need the emotion-laden disciplines of passion and healing that what began in the head might flow from the heart as prayer.

In this biblical scene Jesus had a cause larger than himself - Jesus loved prayer more than profit.

Which way have you come to a cause you love more than yourself? What cause is that? How do these four elements of passion and prayer and healing and teaching work together in your life?

Wesley White

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