Where Was the Scent of Kings?

 

Where Was the Scent of Kings?

(“The holy writings say, ‘He was counted as one of the bad people.’ And I tell you, that means me. And the things that are written about me must happen to me.” Luke 22:37)

Where was the scent of kings,
the incense and the musk of triumph?
There was no uprising,
there was no parade with the captured in chains.
There were no guns or drones,
tanks and soldiers in a row.
There were no fighters or bombers
in formation overhead,
there was no parade on this independence day.

The back-alleys knew, though;
they recognized his face from the galley of rouges.
While power showed off its pageantry
with chariots and swords,
he eschewed concealed carry and
entered conflict a prisoner of war.

We still ignore you because we expect a display,
something to celebrate with fireworks,
a reason to wake up the neighbors,
a magistrate to enforce our suspicions,
a fire-thrower to engulf every sedition
and make it bow so loudly the universe can see
we anointed the king of our own choosing.

But you can be found at the back of the crowd,
initialing the wet concrete.
You never catch our eye with gold,
never wear the trappings of battle.
You refuse to ride the warhorse down
our streets,
and enter in a borrowed jalopy.
We were happy with that for a while.

And now the scent of myrrh, the fragrance
of death-and-life meets us in our doldrums
(Had we been awake, we would have read the
servant poem that describes a prince
who never gave a proper salute.)

And now all our paper mâché mannequins
stand in abandoned palaces. You wait to meet us
outside our hidden prejudice.

"From Different Places"

“But we hear them in our own languages. How is this possible? We are from all these different places…We are from these different countries, but we can hear these men in our own languages! We can all understand the great things they are saying about God.” Acts 2:8, 11b

The story is amazing. Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power they needed to share the good news throughout the world. For 10 days the wait and pray together and on the tenth day they are all filled with the Holy Spirit. A sound of a mighty wind fills the room and what looks like tongues of fire stood over each person there.

Against the Bias

“He will certainly correct you if you’ve been secretly partial.” Job 13:10

Were you ever the teacher’s pet? Or were in you a class which had one? Or maybe you grew up in a family where one child was favored. We may view these as harmless choices based on common interests, but through Scripture God continuously admonishes us about showing partiality.

A Little Power

A Little Power

(“I know what you do; I know that you have a little power; you have followed my teaching and have been faithful to me. I have opened a door in front of you, which no one can close.” Revelation 3:8)

She stumbled, famished and fatigued, not because
she was weak, but her strength had been used
following the narrow road which lead to the craggy peak
where the storehouse of favor was kept.

Yet others, starting later, insisted she stand on her own,
thought her eyes were hollow, her breath shallow and
her heart
pounding so loud it echoed off the circuit of judges
around her.

She could barely turn her head, let alone keep her children fed,
and left her home years ago to follow a dream she hoped would speed
the promises that hard work pays off in the end.

But, for a season, her legs forsook her, her sight blurred and
silence stirred where once the music sent her dancing on her way,
this day and the next, closer to the summit, further towards the crest
where she would show them, finally, that she was as strong as
all the rest.

She was not near death, though she might have welcomed it;
instead she felt every unspoken thought, every backward glance
that suspected she indeed was like
all the rest

Who live in cardboard houses and pay for groceries with stamps.

She had started alone, the crowd carried each other’s weight,
she was on her own. And upon their offer of help her eyes brightened.

Just the thought renewed a moment’s strength until…

They requested, kindly of course, that she be tested for drugs and
the tendency to cheat because they had their numbers in a row,
and they were tired of paying for the poor who seemed
to always buy more than they needed.

No one remembered words about giving two coats when asked for one,
a second mile following the first one,
and freely giving for we who started later, in our vigor,
had freely received, after all.