Mark 11:15-20

“After entering the temple, he threw out those who were selling and buying there. He pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who sold doves. He didn’t allow anyone to carry anything through the temple” (vv. 15-16).

Uprising

What is this work we do—
Aligning the mind,
The body,
And the spirit?

It has taken 40 years to learn,
And yet even longer still,
To integrate into my heart,
Only that which has come through,
The prophets and the priestesses,
Those stone cairns,
So graciously set
Upon my path.

I have left behind,
The capital and wastes
Of uniform religion.
Guilt and corrupt priests,
Burn in their own recoil.
They degrade love and other lovers,
Dethroned or decomposed,
In entropic waves of fear.

Jesus was not passive with an S—
No, not sleeping,
But a pacifist with a C,
Compassionate Christ.

Turning the other cheek
In challenge to the authorities,
Beckoning them to examine
Their shadows, their low selves.
Yes, Jesus was wide awake,
Until he was not.
What is this work we do?
Growing strong the flesh and the blood.

We ride into Jerusalem—
Although we hardly want to.

We prepare to shed
The mind and the body.
We kneel in thanks,
Giving to the Spirit,
Ascending into something powerful,
Something useful as a tree,
Or if we have lived rather well,
A prayer.

When we carry nothing—no baggage, grudges, or fears—we become light, empty, and open, and thereby freed to step outside the city, and inside of prayer.

~Marjorie