Turning the Tables
I was reading a Holy Week Gospel passage where we see an angry Jesus turning over the money changers’ tables and driving out those who sold doves for a temple sacrifice. “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” John 2:16. Jesus is always turning the tables on us, usually through a parable, or a healing of the unclean. My Lenten reflection this week is: What are the tables that Jesus is turning over in this place and time?
To set the table let’s remember that it is easy to be smug about the money changers because we don’t have currency issues to deal with. Further, we do not sacrifice animals, so we can cast our eyes down upon people who would profit from an act of worship. In more recent days, we shake our heads at those who use bingo or raffles as a method of fundraising. Meanwhile, we plan the next church supper, church fair, thrift shop, or murder mystery dinner to support the annual budget. I wonder what Jesus would say about leasing space for a “Cell Tower” in his Father’s house? It is easy to hear about the tables being turned 2000 years ago, not so easy when it is our table, our way of church survival. Our churches have become so holy to us that we will do the unholy to keep them open. Tables turned.
Through tradition and scripture we are asked to tithe from our first fruits. If we had enough income for the church budget, then our church suppers, that depend on non-members paying money to supplement our lack of generosity, could be transformed into free banquets for the people who are poor. Tithing turns the tables on how we do church finance. It is a path to personal holiness and corporate faithfulness. The tithing congregation tells the world that they refuse to sell other people’s junk to keep their doors open. Tithing eliminates the time consuming distraction of church survival fundraising and provides space for “being” the church. What if the mission of all church fundraising was to feed and clothe the poor, to visit the sick and the prisoner, and to work for peace and justice? Tithing turns the table on fundraising and the focus on church survival.
We all have our own personal tables that could use some turning over as well: another good exercise for Lent. For me, sometimes Jesus’ love is having my table turned. And that is ok because his table is an Altar where I am welcomed to the ultimate banquet.