the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner
Writing poetry in the middle of the night because reflux is keeping you awake has its nuances, especially when you are on retreat with several mutual mentors who are also therapists!
Here’s the poem:
Phantoms of the night
Gather around my bed
Whispering anxieties and “what ifs”
They scoff at my commands of dismissal
So perhaps I should befriend them
“No way,” they say, and disappear into the ether.
A remaining question to ponder: are those so gathered angels or demons?
Sadly or gladly, the season of my foray of daily lectionary haikus has come to its end for now. Don’t ask me why, it just seems they have served their purpose. Perhaps the point of engaging with a daily devotion in this way had become something like the tail wagging the dog. Instead of allowing the Word to engage me in its most direct and surgical manner, I was becoming distracted with searching for the correct 5-7-5 formula to give it expression. Today I am in retreat and will possibly discover ways in which my writing will give better expression to what I am wanting to communicate to myself and the universe. There is much that has been pulling towards a disintegrated approach to the challenges that surround me, and my striving is towards the unification and non-duality that finds its most complete expression in the experience of the living Christ. Haikus have been a tool but not the goal and will still appear from time to time. in fact, it seems appropriate to sign off with one.
Finding words is hard
Haikus distill essence well
Avoid addiction
How often is striving against the odds a context for reaching for resources beyond ourselves? Today’s texts, following the Psalm, portray some contexts.
Last Psalm in the book
Full of praise and thanksgiving
Sing it out loudly!
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Shaping up for war
Big giant ‘gainst scrawny kid
What could go badly?
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Temple Portico
An unlikely healing place
Miracles abound!
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Ancient Hebrew texts reveal both the terror and joy of being known as God’s people – a possibility that is transformed through the Easter story
Steadfast love endures
Summoning deep devotion
of eternal worth.
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Ark of the Presence
Full of danger and promise
Joyful king dances
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Tomb of the Presence
Empty, yet full of wonder
Lives turned upside down
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If one is in any doubt over gender equity in the sacred texts, let today’s passages put your mind at ease. The tumultuous age of the Judges sees strong initiative by female wile. The feminine principle is equally powerful in the visions of Revelation
Now is the moment
Each day divinely decreed
Rejoice! Be happy!
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What a headache
Clever warrior outsmarted
By womanly guile
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Cosmic drama of
Woman, child, and wild dragon
All will end quite well
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Implications of Christ’s resurrection swap old ways for new, as seen in today’s contrasting texts,
Rejected by builders
And now the chief cornerstone
How the tide has turned!
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Ancient tribe warfare
Yields neither ground nor quarter
Even under God.
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Hubris does no good
The old malice is best dumped
Christ is the new way.
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All as meant to be
A dream of Shalom realised
Not wishful thinking
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At the empty tomb
Let’s sing out “His steadfast love
Endures forever!”
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All die in Adam
Behold this new thing today
All alive in Christ!
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Mysteries abound
Resurrection hard to bear
But, now, there it is!
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In-between time … how do we reflect on the liminal space that separates the despair of Good Friday and the surprise of Easter Sunday.
Our mortal question:
Can those who die live again
Though the world goes on?
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In life and in death
Rock of Ages has a cleft
that keeps my questions
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Even in these times
Model yourselves on Christ’s love
Such covers all things
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Even entombed away
The crucified one disturbs –
Double the grave’s seal!
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Why is it called Good Friday? Humanity’s primaeval need for a scapegoat is satisfied and transformed by what happens on this day.
Girard had it right
Find willing servant victim
and make all things well
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Begins forsaken
Yet fully rehearsed and said
Ends with deliv’rance
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Law inscribed on hearts
for a new and living way
Through a torn curtain
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Stay long if you dare
with crucifixion drama
Through it find your life.
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The evolution of Passover from the rescue of a captive people to an inner release and unification that is of inner and cosmic significance marks this day. It culminates in the transcendence of the power of servanthood over the power of domination.
Dressed ready to flee
Slain lambs prepared for daubing
Doorposts to freedom
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All praise to the Lord
who loosed my prisoner’s chains
I serve Him gladly
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It’s through bread and wine
That we tell the wondrous deed
Death releasing Life
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A basin and towel
tell the story of greatness
modelled on God’s love
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Wondering Pilgrim 