The Third Sunday of Lent - March 11, 2012
John 2:17
"Zeal for your house will consume me."
Those who observed Jesus' actions in the Temple -- what we call the "cleansing of the Temple" -- used this verse from Psalm 69:9 to describe his motivation for upsetting the Temple (John 2:13 - 25, which is the entire lesson for today). They interpreted his actions as "zeal."
"Zeal" and "consume" are the old words, used in the King James Version, and followed by most of the older translations. The more contemporary Bible translations use "love," "strong love," or "passion" instead of zeal, and they use the image of that love burning or being on fire instead of "consume". "My love for your house burns in me like a fire" (CEV).
The cultural way to think about zeal and passion is that everyone needs a little bit, that if you're not at least a little passionate about something you're not really living. But we have such a broad range of things about which to be passionate, that we can find ourselves completely zealous for things that have little meaning. And many of these things don't make life full and whole; instead, they distract us from a more honest engagement with what is Real and True.
For instance, I can be passionate about having more education, or collecting antique cars, or playing golf, or extreme sports, or any number of things . . . but none of those things, in and of themselves, can make me a more human person. In fact, chasing after these "minor passions" with zeal can serve as a distraction and hinder my capacity to give time and attention to those things in life that really have some gravity about them.
A passion-less life is not the ideal, nor is a life in which we are zealous over whatever seems to feed us at the moment.
What we are after, on the other hand, is passion or zeal for those things that help us engage life more honestly. We want to set our course for those things that contribute to wholeness, both for us and for our communities. We want passion for the healing of the world and not the separation or dividing of the world. I've just described "a strong love that burns like fire."
It doesn't have to be the zeal that sends you out to wear a sandwich board on the street-corner, though some have done that. It may simply be a zeal that gives you a single-minded focus, a passionate intention for God and the things that make for wholeness.
So the big question, it seems to me, is not whether or not we'll be passionate people. But for what will we be passionate? What or who will be the object of our passion?
For today . . . think of something for which you have been passionate at some time in your life. To what extremes did you go in your zeal? How long did the excitement last? What sustained it . . . or why did it run dry?
Finally, what might be God's invitation to you for today? Sit quietly and open yourself to hear what God is whispering to you.
"Zeal for your house will consume me."
Those who observed Jesus' actions in the Temple -- what we call the "cleansing of the Temple" -- used this verse from Psalm 69:9 to describe his motivation for upsetting the Temple (John 2:13 - 25, which is the entire lesson for today). They interpreted his actions as "zeal."
"Zeal" and "consume" are the old words, used in the King James Version, and followed by most of the older translations. The more contemporary Bible translations use "love," "strong love," or "passion" instead of zeal, and they use the image of that love burning or being on fire instead of "consume". "My love for your house burns in me like a fire" (CEV).
The cultural way to think about zeal and passion is that everyone needs a little bit, that if you're not at least a little passionate about something you're not really living. But we have such a broad range of things about which to be passionate, that we can find ourselves completely zealous for things that have little meaning. And many of these things don't make life full and whole; instead, they distract us from a more honest engagement with what is Real and True.
For instance, I can be passionate about having more education, or collecting antique cars, or playing golf, or extreme sports, or any number of things . . . but none of those things, in and of themselves, can make me a more human person. In fact, chasing after these "minor passions" with zeal can serve as a distraction and hinder my capacity to give time and attention to those things in life that really have some gravity about them.
A passion-less life is not the ideal, nor is a life in which we are zealous over whatever seems to feed us at the moment.
What we are after, on the other hand, is passion or zeal for those things that help us engage life more honestly. We want to set our course for those things that contribute to wholeness, both for us and for our communities. We want passion for the healing of the world and not the separation or dividing of the world. I've just described "a strong love that burns like fire."
It doesn't have to be the zeal that sends you out to wear a sandwich board on the street-corner, though some have done that. It may simply be a zeal that gives you a single-minded focus, a passionate intention for God and the things that make for wholeness.
So the big question, it seems to me, is not whether or not we'll be passionate people. But for what will we be passionate? What or who will be the object of our passion?
For today . . . think of something for which you have been passionate at some time in your life. To what extremes did you go in your zeal? How long did the excitement last? What sustained it . . . or why did it run dry?
Finally, what might be God's invitation to you for today? Sit quietly and open yourself to hear what God is whispering to you.
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