EASTER

You, Lord Jesus, didn't stay
Quietly dead and hid away
You're still here to cause dissension
To challenge clerical invention

For there is still a need of men
To respond as you did then
To overcome their normal fears
And face the world with fresh ideas

Give us then the strength divine
To step completely out of line
Going after where you led
Doing always what you said

Not putting you upon a throne
Nor making monuments in stone
But out there with you doing stuff
Where life is true and life is tough

Be our strength when we are weak
Be there when we your comfort seek
Be there in glory when we win
Be there in mercy when we sin.

Lord Jesus, with the Spirit fill us
With his awesome power instil us
For it is then that we can do
and follow truly after you.

PENTECOST

There was wind and fire,
symbolic of divine presence.
Voices came in their mother tongue
How could this be, they asked.
And Peter, the leader, replied
presented a message culled from scripture
crafted and polished, untenably,
to meet the theology current
at the time of writing.

The tale truthfully presents another story.
During a festival celebrating the law of God
given in a single language and to a single people,
the Divine voice breaks through and speaks to all,
ignoring and overcoming, their linguistic diversity.
Pentecost is about those most Christian of concepts:
inclusion of others and liberation from legalism.
It tells the tale of the embryo church
forcing an inclusive persepective,
despite the views of others.

Inclusion
by discarding the separating power of language.
Liberation
by circumventing the powerful religious elites
who keep access to God at arm's length;
Liberation
by meeting God in a secular, environment
Liberation
by transforming the transcendent God
into immanence

Perhaps the story of Pentecost
is not a literal record of events,
but a polemic against the emergence of
an exclusive, legalistic, priest-bound church.
Perhaps we can follow this story further
as we read the book of Acts.

GOOD FRIDAY (close)

Widows weeds bedeck the mourning congregation
Jews walk fearful throughout the Christian world
This is the day that Christ was crucified, betrayed,
died according to the legends.

Christ was arrested, condemned, was crucified
an object lesson to disturbers of the Roman peace
a focus for the rising tide of national revolution
but his disciples fled, hid, fearful of the same
Could not face a similar situation
not ready to die for Jesus
yet.

Our literal mindset takes firm hold of improbable minutae
analyses, yet fears to discard what seems untrue.
Maybe we can see the bible's contradictions
and realise that all can not be right,
unless it is not meant to be
a literal account.

Our sacraments arise from the memories
of those who did not witness the events described
yet describe in detail what should have happened then
for their leader, rabbi, teacher, friend, had died,
fulfilling the purposes of a loving God,
as a sacrifice, not an execution;
not the shame of crucifixion,
surely.

CHRISTMAS (close)

Joy to the world?

A celebration of midwinter and the start of longer days
became a celebration of the birth of Jesus, new light to the world,
but has become a celebration of consumerism, of excess, new possessions.

The message of the humility of a stable and visits by simple shepherds
has been replaced by presentation of impractical, unwanted, gifts,
endorsed by angelic choirs and a visit by three ancient kings.

The worship of descended divinity has trumped
the message of divinely inspired humanity
as 'joy' fails to destroy the poverty
of those who pluck the turkeys
for our consumption.

The conflict over theology between the message and worship of Christ,
within the early church and extant to this very day, is exposed
and the gospel of transcendent glory has triumphed
over that of humility and love and care.

No wonder many are turning back to the earlier story,
and the practical reality of midwinter
seen amidst the winter snow,
no longer.