It was on the Monday
that religion got in the way.

An outsider would have thought
that it was a pet shop’s fire sale.
And the outsider, in some ways,
wouldn’t have been far from wrong.

Only, it wasn’t household pets,
it was pigeons that were being purchased.
And it wasn’t a fire-sale;
it was a rip-off stall in a holy temple
bartering birds for sacrifice.
And the price was something only the rich could afford.
No discounts to students, pensioners,
or social security claimants.

Then he,
the holiest man on earth,
went through the bizarre bazaar
like a bull in a china shop.
So the doves got liberated
and the pigeon sellers got angry.
And the police went crazy
and the poor people clapped like mad,
because he was making a sign
that God was for everybody,
not just for those who could afford him.
He turned the tables on Monday…
The day that religion got in the way.

For Holy Week, I’m sharing a series of poems that come from Stages on the Way, a book of worship resources for the Easter season prepared by the Iona Community, a Christian ecumenical community headquartered in Scotland and devoted to peace and social justice.