A Few Ways

A Few Ways

(“And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’” Mark 7:37)

And here are a few other ways that He is different from
gurus and pundits, spiritualists and sages.
He turns the entire world inside out, the foundations we dug
now float away to the hidden warehouses of the snow.
And He builds with cast-off lumber, chinked bricks,
scads of shards indistinguishable from pebbles strewn
on the hardpan soil of desert expanse.

And here are a few other ways He challenges the
assumption of His some-time prophets who see the
End OF THE World at every shaking off San Francisco,
Peru or Japan. Or the scan the skies for the latest
blue moon array and exclaim the telltale signs that Jesus
is ready to get real mad now that He has spent 2,000 years
holding in all his anger, being nice, and all, full of grace and all,
for over two millennia, and that is more than enough time to wait.
The world was created in a week, and within the next week His
lightning and thunder will bloodily turn the undertow foamy.
Mark the date, people,
Empty your plates, people,
Walk straight, people because the Eastern Sky will explode
in gall and wrath just days after I’ve finished cashing all my checks
sent in by so many who
took the bait, people.

And here are a few other ways to welcome His coming
with visits to the unwashed cells of unwanted humans,
with encounters in stuffy rooms that smell of excrement where
the unknown aged wait their last breath alone,
with cookies for children with sores upon their faces,
with hugs for antagonists,
honey for adversaries,
and healing for every man (high, low, above, below)
who has a past you’ve never met, but who has a past
that keeps him awake at night.

And here are a few other ways He is different
than
any
other.

A Different Degree

A Different Degree

When every footprint sinks to a different degree,
displacing the mud or sand beneath the weight of
one single
human being,
we detect the evidence of another life form
to speak and eat with, to smile and tease with,
to joke and to wander the skies from sunset horizon
to midnight apogee. We who walked the same woods alone
turn full circle more than once or twice over, expanding
its diameter three feet at a time to discover
another to break the silence of the hillside forest,

Until turning the last degree, on the periphery of vision
we meet. My heart stops, my hands shake, my mouth so dry
that words are pasted on my tongue and down my throat;
yet so anxious to speak after speaking has nearly been forgotten.

I turn full and final, the circle that meets you eye to face,
and, though no words are spoken, I see you are dressed
far too conservative for me

And turn the circle round with my footprints sinking
to a different degree behind me.

UnDivisions

“’Do not stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘Anyone who is not against you is for you.’” Luke 9:50

“Can you be a Christian if…” I don’t know how many different ways I have heard that sentence completed. Some of them are sincere, some are trying to find a way to justify personal habits and others want to exclude someone from the Christian club. A mom tells a youth pastor to keep her daughter away from the black boy who is attending the church. October 31 is called the Devil’s Day. Women wear dresses, men wear what they want. True believers vote Republican and liberal is an synonym for atheist.