As you turned over tables
and sent coins
spinning and jangling
across the temple floor,
disrupt the unholy commerce
in our hearts:
selling faith
for security
and trading justice
for peace.

By your holy anger
drive out every transaction
that profanes
the house of prayer.

By that same anger start
what evil can't defeat:
a stubborn passion in the heart
to see God's will complete.

But do not let our rage
grow bitter as the din
of fierce mean minds that fail to gauge
when anger turns to sin.

Instead, let anger be
the first note
in love's ascending scale,
the starting tone
of heaven's dove:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
if only you knew
the things that make for peace..."
Instead, let anger be
compassion's kindling fire
that lights in us the energy
to live as you desire.