Which Temple?

Gospel: Mark 12: 38-44

The clergy love places of honor with the rich and powerful.  They wear distinctive clothing in order to be recognized, in order to find an honored place in such company.  To maximize time in the limelight they recite long prayers of empty substance.  They lead the parade of rich to offer large sums into the Temple treasury so that a building made of stone can endure throughout time.  Plaques of honor can and are made for wealthy donors to such places as temples.

Meanwhile, a poor widow comes to the Temple to offer a mere pittance.  The Temple ought to be supporting her, but it is not.  The rich who give to the Temple in order to receive honor should be supporting her, but they are not.  The Temple they do support is now no more; meanwhile, we continue to have widows, refugees, migrants, and the poor among us.  The temples of their bodies go neglected while we move onto other building projects we claim are for God's glory.

Religion pure and undefiled before God is the care of widows and orphans, the care of refugees and migrants and the poor.  True worship is the care of the man caught by robbers.  It is mercy God desires, not sacrifice and long prayers.  The Christian life is to imitate Jesus who spent his time in the care of others without distinction, who wore no religious finery, sat at no place of honor, and who served rather than be served.