The Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent: Something like peace, maybe

The Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent

Ecclesiasticus 47:8-10; Luke 24:44-48; Psalm 122 or Psalm 34:1-8

Jerusalem the golden,
With milk and honey blest,
Beneath thy contemplation
Sink heart and voice opprest.
I know not, oh, I know not,
What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory,
What bliss beyond compare!

--Bernard of Morlas

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the mere mention of the name of that great city is often enough to evoke deep emotions in people. Some of the most famous places in the world exist within the walls of the Old City. Some of the most hotly contested pieces of land exist there, too. Jerusalem, for who’s peace we pray, seems to almost never be at peace with herself.

Jesus stood on a hill and proclaimed to his audience that they were “the city of God” …the living and breathing Jerusalem, with hearts instead of Temples, with the Holy Spirit, instead of the High Priest. Surely that must be true for us today, as well. Sometimes, I think we are like Jerusalem. More than that, sometimes I think we are Jerusalem…so beautiful and so blessed, and so at war with ourselves, so determined to confuse being right with being righteous.

These walls of flesh mirror the strife of the walls of stone…but can we bend our will to be conquered? Would we be willing to throw down our arms, un-man our walls, and surrender ourselves to be pillaged by love? We arm ourselves everyday against it…we buffer assaults with alcohol, phony relationships, fancy theologies, trashy television shows, shoe sales, expensive vacations, and empty conversations. What would happen if we stopped doing that? What would it look like to allow God to pull down those walls…to be a heart of flesh, ready to be consumed?

What would it look like to put down the fights you have with God? What would it look like to put down the fights you have with your family, or your friends and co-workers? I’m not talking about laying aside healthy boundaries, or reasonable arguments…I’m talking about the ones that raise your blood pressure, make holidays tense, the ones you lose sleep over at night. What would happen if you laid all those things at God’s feet?

Something like peace, maybe.

--Rachel