Standing Right in Front of You

 

Standing Right in Front of You

(“Jesus said this because the people were saying that he had an evil spirit in him.” Mark 3:30)

You have him standing right in front of you,
the one without the loaded gun,
(No, I do not have a gun).
the one who eschewed the sword,
(Lord of peace, king imbued with grace).
You have him kneeling right in front of you,
the one with the washcloth in his hand.
(No, I do not boast of loss).
the one who disdained the crown,
(Prince of the found and lost).

And still we ignore you, too quiet for our own tastes.
And still we mistake you, too subversive to be a saint.
And still we see demons where healing is measured
in bushels of liberation to the underserving back alleys
and sad mistakes
and perpetual retakes
and weighted heartaches
without ever entering the high stakes
steeples we have erected to point far above
the places you selected to dwell.

We will learn to dissolve our high-minded walls
when we lay down our calls for doctrines to referee
every notion encapsulated minds have formed.
(if they said demons inhabited You,
what prevents us from saying worse about the
least of these?)

Meanwhile we load our rifles, grab our clubs,
march into a garden where a man has been praying
all night long (far after the last refrain of the last psalm)
and demand proof of his identity.

We see demons everywhere when demons have circled our
unrequited thoughts and pulled them tightly around us like
a hat band squeezing our brain. Little room remains to see
the world, the divine,
the image, the new wine,
the healed, the holy
in the feet of one who walks the backroads
slowly, ambling through our souls, one at a time,
and healing those we have left behind.

Unbreak Your Back

Unbreak Your Back

(“You were complacent in your evil deeds; you thought, ‘No one sees me.’ Your self-professed wisdom and knowledge lead you astray, when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’” Isaiah 47:10)

I can’t say we were shocked when your genius
(your highness)
fell from a stable
to a mahogany scarlet velvet throne;
but some were surprised (yet they would never
admit it.)

Your infancy was cradled in monumental deception,
you were conceived in arrogance and nursed on privilege
with little detection
of flesh and blood other than the band that
did your bidding.

I can’t say it took us by surprise, your rise from boasting
to a pill too bitter to swallow. And flocks of fallen angels
laid their hands on you, leapt like fawns for you,
posed in photos and roped in the followers for you.
But some were shocked (and they were ejected for it.)

Look over the vast expanse, walk next to the immigrant’s child,
ride in the front of a farmer’s combine at harvest,
sit with the mother and children who have stopped waiting
or the man to come back. Unbreak your back for once and leave
your agenda (hand-written, one thing to do today)
to find the place where the one-king lives

Back in the stable, just a few blocks south of the house
white with history’s stain. Right in your backyard

Left there since the mystery of incarnation; resign
and refind why the one man Jesus loved, having too
much stuff to carry

Turned away and did not follow.

A Revolution of Goodness

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21

I have loved watching the Olympics since I was a child. I enjoyed everything from boxing to kayaking in the Summer and slalom to figure skating in the Winter Games. Every participant is among the cream of the crop in their sport. Over 10,000 athletes participated in 2012 at London, proudly representing 204 nations.