House of Prayer

Collect for Friday in the Fourth Week of Lent

O God, you have given us the good news of your abounding love in your Son Jesus Christ: So fill our hearts with thankfulness that we may rejoice to proclaim the good tidings we have received; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

House of Prayer (Matthew 21:1-27)

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

He said to them, “It is written,

             ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’;

              but you are making it a den of robbers.”     (Matthew 21:12-13)

The great Temple in Jerusalem was regarded as “God’s house,” the place where God’s glory rested, where people came to worship and offer sacrifice.  When Jesus came to this sacred place as a boy of twelve, he called it “My Father’s house.” (Luke 2:49).

When he came to the Temple again, as an adult, he was offended by the sight of people buying and selling the animals for sacrifice.  In his righteous anger, he quoted the ancient scripture of the prophet Isaiah (56:7): “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”

This phrase, “house of prayer,” points us toward the mystery of seeking to enter into the presence of God.  Where and how can we do this?

Our place of encounter with God is not a building, even though we do have buildings where we gather for prayer.  It is Jesus himself, the Crucified and Risen One, who is now and forever our “house of prayer.” 

How do we enter that “house”?  We already belong to Christ through our Baptism, and need only to become aware of our deep union with Him.   This can happen when we learn to enter into silence and to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit.  There, in the silence, we may begin to know Jesus and—knowing Him—begin to know God.

When we join ourselves to Jesus in humble faith we are brought into relationship with the living God—a relationship of intimacy and peace, where our sins are forgiven and our whole being may be filled with the joy of God.   Our prayer, then, is not merely or even mainly “asking for things,” but it is the receiving of Love, giving praise,  and surrendering gladly to the One who holds us in being.

The Rev. Wayne Fehr

Retired Priest and Teacher

Diocese of Milwaukee