Wednesday, February 13 - Ash Wednesday

Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be a house of prayer;' but you have made it a den of robbers.” (Luke 19: 45-46)

On Luke 19: 45-46...I pray often that Jesus would drive out those who are selling in many situations in today's world the way he drove out the merchants in the temple. I wish he would drive those who make war for profit out of the countries they invade in the name of national security. I wish he would drive out those who televise suffering for ratings from the homes of the tragedy-stricken, and I wish he would drive out those who would bring down a national economy by giving mortgages to poor desperate people who could never pay them, all for the sake of fat bonuses. I wish many of these things, but they don't seem to happen. Or, at least not the way I would wish.

But when I take a closer look I see other things. I see people traveling to other countries to lend aid to the sick and poor. I also see reporters and writers exposing public scams at the risk of their own careers. I even see neighbors I never knew stopping to help an injured cat along the road...lending blankets, calling for help, offering comfort, and crying for a dying life that would otherwise die alone. And then I think that maybe Jesus is still driving a den of robbers out of the temple, in order to make a house of prayer. Then I think that maybe it really was, is and always will be "written."

Jeff Edwards