March 29: Christ the Purifier
♫ Music:
Day 29 - Wednesday, March 29
Christ Cleanses the Temple
Scripture: John 2:13-22
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Poetry:
"Cleansing the Temple"
by Malcolm Guite
Come to your Temple here with liberation
And overturn these tables of exchange,
Restore in me my lost imagination,
Begin in me for good the pure change.
Come as you came, an infant with your mother,
That innocence may cleanse and claim this ground.
Come as you came, a boy who sought his father
With questions asked and certain answers found.
Come as you came this day, a man in anger,
Unleash the lash that drives a pathway through,|
Face down for me the fear, the shame, the danger,
Teach me again to whom my love is due.
Break down in me the barricades of death
And tear the veil in two with your last breath.
CHRIST THE PURIFIER
In “Cleansing the Temple,” Malcolm Guite reminds us that the temple that Christ subjects to his fury during its busy, profitable Passover season is the same place where he was first recognized by Simeon and Anna, who hailed him as the coming Messiah. It is the same place where his mother found him questioning the elders about the Law as a young boy. And it would be the same place where, on the day of his death, the veil would be divided into two, eliminating the barrier between God’s holiness and his people. In associating these events, Guite reminds us that Jesus’ actions on this Passover are not isolated. He is always cleansing his temple, whether that be by correcting and enhancing its teaching, by casting out the greed and self-serving we are so apt to bring into it, or by cleansing us its inhabitants so that we may encounter God in his holiness.
Not only is Christ cleansing our temple, he is our true temple. Jesus’ strange rejoinder to the Jews reminds us that the physical temple was just an earthly archetype of an eternal reality. By identifying his body as a temple, Jesus is enlivening his listeners to the reality which the temple represents: God’s dwelling with his people. Christ’s right to cleanse the earthly temple comes from his identity as God with us, an identity which would be revealed when these same people tried to destroy his body. Moreover, Christ’s words remind us that now we, too, are temples of God since the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And, as Guite reminds us, just as Christ’s role with the temple in Jerusalem was one of purifier, so it is with us. As temples of God, we exist as places where Christ is recognized as the Messiah, and where he lives as our instructor; where he has torn down the dividing wall between our souls and the very presence of God.
We are also places always subject to Christ’s purifying intrusion. Reminiscent of John Donne’s call for God to batter his heart, Guite invites Christ’s anger into the temple of his being. In doing so, these poets urge us to welcome Christ’s role as purifier, not only into our churches, universities and families, but into our own souls. They also remind us that where our hearts have been corrupted, we may need Christ to come not with gentleness, but with judgment. Donne calls on God to batter his heart because his hardened heart will not yield to Christ’s gentle call. He writes,
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
Handel echoes this message, hailing Christ not only as savior but as purifier and as the breaker of the wicked (which may include ourselves). Can we join the chorus in rejoicing that Christ comes to purify, or is this a Jesus with whom we continue to feel uneasy?
PRAYER
Gracious Father, we acknowledge that we are temples of your Spirit, and we pray that you would be pleased to fill us with all truth, in all peace. Where we are corrupt, purify us; where we are in error, direct us; where anything is amiss, reform us. Where we are right, establish us; where we are in want, provide for us; where we are divided, reunite us; for the sake of him who died and rose again, and ever lives to make intercession for us, Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
Amen.
(Adapted from the 1928 BCP)
Janelle Aijian, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Torrey Honors Institute
About the Artwork:
Drawing Study for Self Image II
Julian Grater
Charcoal/graphite.pastel/acrylic/bitumen/beeswax/
dry pigment/ straw & flower petals on paper
About the Artist:
Julian Grater finished a body of work for his first major solo exhibition at a public gallery in the UK (1989). This group of brutally dark and psychologically rendered drawings caught the eye of musician Peter Gabriel who selected one of these drawings for the album cover of ‘Passion’. Peter felt that while the artwork had not been specifically commissioned and created to accompany the project, the drawing had a number of particular qualities that he felt resonated in a powerful way with the rich, cultural fusion of the music’s complex soundscape. The album cover artwork was awarded album cover of the year 1989.
http://www.juliangrater.com/jg_index.html
About the Music #1:
“Thou Shalt Break Them” from The Messiah is taken from Psalm 2:9.
Lyrics:
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
About the Music #2:
“He Shall Purify” from The Messiah is taken from Malachi 3:3.
Lyrics:
And He shall purify the sons of Levi,
that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
About the Composer:
George Frederic Handel (1685 – 1759) was a German Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. He was strongly influenced by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. Musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that "Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order.” Handel composed more than forty operas in around thirty years.
Handel’s Messiah was first performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in western music. Handel's Messiah has been described by the early-music scholar Richard Luckett as "a commentary on Jesus Christ's Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension," beginning with God's promises as spoken by the prophets and ending with Christ's glorification in heaven. The music for the Messiah was completed in 24 days of swift composition. At the end of the manuscript Handel wrote the letters SDG -- Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone the glory.”
About the Performers:
The London Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1947 as the chorus for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Working under conductors such as Boulez, Elder, Gatti, Haitink, Jurowski, Masur, Nézet-Séguin, Norrington, Rattle, Solti, Tennstedt and Welser-Möst, the Choir has always met with critical acclaim. Now widely regarded as one of the nation’s finest choirs, they perform regularly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and other world-class orchestras at major venues and festivals throughout the year.
https://lpc.org.uk/
The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world's finest symphony orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK's most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras. The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then has been headed by many of the great names in the conducting world, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. The Orchestra's current Principal Conductor is Vladimir Jurowski, who was appointed in 2007. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall in London since it opened in 1951. Having long been embraced by the recording, broadcast and film industries, the London Philharmonic Orchestra broadcasts regularly on TV and radio. They also work with the Hollywood and UK film industries, and have been recording soundtracks for over half a century.
https://www.lpo.org.uk/
About the Poet:
Malcolm Guite (b. 1957) is a poet, author, Anglican priest, teacher and singer/songwriter based in Cambridge, England. He has published six collections of poetry: Saying the Names, The Magic Apple Tree, Sounding the Seasons: Poetry for the Christian Year, and The Singing Bowl, Waiting on the Word and the recently released Parable and Paradox: Sonnets on the Sayings of Jesus and Other Poems. His writing has been acclaimed by Rowan Williams and Luci Shaw, and his Antiphons appeared in Penguin’s Best Spiritual Writing 2013, edited by Philip Zaleski. Malcolm’s theological works include What Do Christians Believe? and Faith, Hope, and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination. He is a scholar of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the British poets and serves as Bye-Fellow and chaplain at Girton College at the University Cambridge while supervising students in English and theology and lecturing widely in England and the USA. Malcolm plays in the Cambridge rock band Mystery Train and his albums include The Green Man and Dancing through the Fire.
www.malcolmguite.wordpress.com