Easter 2014

My church day started with communion preparation.

Nine trays to be filled.

My duty this Sunday.

 My church celebrates the risen Christ

With the bread and wine

Of remembrance.

Next came an Easter egg hunt

Open to all in our city.

We are a church with few children

Except on Easter morning

When young voices echo

Through our old building.

Finally, organ music swelled.

The most joyous service of the year had begun.

Christ is risen!

The minister proclaimed from the pulpit

As he opened with a prayer.

I waited for the joy

That comes on Easter,

But it was not there.

Had I been too caught up

In the mundane

To know this day's exultation?

Then the choir sang

"He Is Not Here!"

As that anthem echoed through sanctuary,

My scalp tingled.

I stood outside Jerusalem

Gazing at an empty tomb,

Knowing that the world had been transformed.

He is risen!

And we all rise with him.

 

Violent Nation

   

We are a nation bereft.

Our children die in the home, 

In the classroom,

And in the streets,

Murdered because we embrace

Guns in the name of freedom.

Change us,

Change our nation.

Make it safe for all.

We were never meant to be

"One nation under God."

We were meant to be

"From many one."

We must all be safe

Or we are all in danger.

Fear leads to prejudice,

Prejudice leads to intolerance,

Intolerance leads to hate,
And hate leads to violence.  
Erase our fear with your grace,

So that hate never corrupts our soul

And violence has no home.

Keep us wrapped in your love

And safe in the knowledge

That this life is but a stop

On the way to eternity.   

Palm Sunday 2013

 

Children scurried down the aisles

Of churches this morning

Waving green palm fronds in the air

In memory of 

Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 
On that day so long ago

The crowd spread their cloaks and palm leaves

Before his donkey's feet.

 People exulted.

Hosannas filled the air.

Soon the Romans would be gone,

They believed.

Jerusalem would be theirs alone.

But the cries of joy faded

In the wake of the High Priest's perfidy.

In one week, 
Christ would 

Be arrested,

Condemned

And

Crucified.

His body placed in a tomb.

Did Jesus know what was to come

As he rode into Jerusalem?

I think he did.

And still he came to Jerusalem

For us.

Palm Sunday 2012

In Christian churches today,

Children carried palm fronds down the aisles

In memory of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 
On that day so long ago

The crowd spread their cloaks and palm leaves

Before his donkey's feet.

Hosannas filled the air.

In one week, 
Christ would 

Be arrested,

Condemned

And

Crucified.

His body placed in a tomb

And

Resurrected.

Did Jesus know what was to come

As he rode into Jerusalem?

I think he did.

And still he came to Jerusalem.