To Shape the World

 To Shape the World

(“Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:19b)

How could we miss it,
the way you displayed our violence
when you never said a mumbling word?
Why do we dream of armies,
why do we fight hand to hand,
face to face,
race to race,
grabbing land and
staking our claims?

My walls, my acreage,
my car, my failing courage,
the broken bridges are my solitary
confinement. My isolation has gone
on far too long.

Why a lamb? Oh, little one, so very young;
why a lamb?
Shepherd us again, gather us, all of us,
into the fold again.

I had dinner with some of your own a few
weeks ago. We were a jolly boy, a mother of
still waters running, an elder left on his own,
a daughter in love with the world, her husband
in love too, a wife who wishes we would celebrate
more often. And one who, I daresay, is among the
beloved.

Though we made no mention of it as we drank
and laughed and nearly emptied the place,
I suspect the lamb was present too. And, I daresay,
called us all beloved and sent us, full and joy

To shape the world in the image of lamb-like resistance,
defenseless reformation, campfire pentecost, shalom and
shabbat; to

Meet the next member of the flock with
wildflowers that take away the
sins of the world.