St. Nicolai Notes

EXCHANGES ON THE WAY: LENTEN PRAYERS
Day 23: Fourth Monday
Mark 11:12-25 (26) some Bibles will not have a verse 26, but you can follow a footnote

     Jesus, when you enacted prophetic parables it surprised and confused your followers. How much more does it confuse those of us whose lives are organized around a different set of symbols.
     We are uncomfortable with depictions of judgement, partly because they undermine our image of you as one who is always gentle and partly because we want to set aside all images of God as one who judges, and will judge. Yet your actions pointed forward to real judgment, to the termination of your nation and the center and symbol of its socioeconomic and religious life.* 
     If the demise of the nation God had chosen, and the place most closely associated with the presence of God were real possibilities, what does that mean for our nation and for our chosen symbols? In what ways might we fall under your judgment?** How might we align every dimension of our individual and communal lives in order to avoid such judgments?
     Enable us to trust You more fully. Energize us for persistent prayer that your will may be more completely lived out among us. Give us courage to live out our faith in the face of resistance, as Jesus did. Amen.

* The fig tree is a symbol for Israel; the Temple the organizing center of Israel's life.
** Since I am writing in a time of pandemic, I want to point out that I do not perceive that as a
    judgment that is specifically directed at our nation and its favored symbols.