Over Lent this year (2021) a motley but dedicated collection of freelancers, all of whom have a Christian Faith, decided to collaborate on a project we called Lent Voices. Each week we decided on a theme, loosely connected to a bible passage/story.
Below I have linked the contributions for week three – the theme was Cleansing and we used the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple as our launch. That story can be found in John 2:13-22.
And then I looked inside the bag…. – by Lucie Hutson
…I thought about how Jesus showed anger at the way the temple was being misused and filled. We may take that anger based on the commercialisation of sacred spaces or the wrong motives of leaders and officials.
But bringing this into our lives feels even less comfortable – because what might Jesus throw out of how we live? ..(read more)
Cleansing – by Andy Campbell
They stood silent – shocked beyond the core at the actions of this agitator.
Amid the dust and squabbling animals there lay scattered coins, flour, grain and broken bottles of wine.
…(read more)
Theo-drama: Cleansing – by Hasna Khatun
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
In the temple, he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves – and the money changers seated at their tables.
(Click here to see [and hear] Hasna’s reflection on YouTube)
Cleanse – by James Fox Robinson
James has put some images to a powerful poem 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...
(see the rest here)
Cleansing – by Sally Nash
Cleansing – by Mark Berry
How I’ve piled the layers of my plated self,
Draped myself in cloaks of skill.
Purpled skin in praise of me,
Stories that uphold this shill.
Flooding space between the drab,
The me inflicted bruises covered.
An exoskeleton of pride,
The truth of me will-fully smothered.
The truth, of me?
…(read more)
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