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April 2022

In a Word

(x = space)

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In a Word

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The gospel in a word is love

So goes a song

And it is

Gospel, song, or word

x

The reason for the actions

And the stories

The meaning of everything

(there, you were wondering)

Is love

x

Love precedes judgment

And is precedent

It precedes creation

And was the reason for it

Don’t worry, it is practical and smart

It is reasonable

And sounder than reason

For it lasts and is unwarranted

It outlasts our philosophy schools

And business strategies

And even plans for war

x

It fortifies all decent purposes

Makes relations possible

Between all sorts of people

Plans

And nations

x

It ends war

Keeps many wars from starting

It is the reason why we feed

And water

And clothe

Ourselves and everyone

Everywhere

It is the reason why we go to work

Or school

And why we come home after

It is home

And family

And self

And God

Civil society

It is why we move forward

And come back

Strength for today

Bright hope for tomorrow

x

The first song concludes

(at least in my youth group)

Love your neighbor

As we’ve heard

From long ago

In many texts

And songs

x

As it is

As it really is

Our lives go on

Conclude

Having begun

With love

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C L Couch

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“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is a hymn from the 1920s by Chisholm, Runyan, and Schrotenboer.  The other song alluded to is called “Love, Love, Love, Love”; it is a more contemporary song and is often sung as a round.

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Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

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2

Demons in the Corners

(x = space)

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Demons in the Corners

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Sometimes

Sometimes it seems

Too hard

There is too much that’s

Jagged like or as

Broken glass

Pieces that penetrate

That draw bright blood

Of one kind

Or another

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The world hurts

Because some people

Want it to hurt,

The cost

Of doing business

Raking prophet

Winning war

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In these strategies,

Theology is far away

There is no discussion of

Depravity,

Nearly original sin

Or otherwise

This is not a point of doctrine

We are mean in every way

Because we want to be

We want to wield something

As if it’s ours

And if it’s yours

At cost and sacrifice

So much the better:

I keep my things

And don’t care

If I lose yours

x

This is mining Earth

(of any kind

of any kind)

For money

For tremendous feeling

Mortal glory

Fame or infamy

Two sides of

A silver coin

x

In judgment, counted with

The other coins that paid

For Earth

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Conviction, sentence from betrayal

But that is sometime

Not today

At least is doesn’t feel that way

And we have plans

Today

We the profiteers

Are winning

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

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2

Temporary Beautiful

(x = space)

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Temporary Beautiful

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I don’t know

We walk in snow today

If we want to

It fell when nighttime degrees

Encountered would-be rain

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There is wind

To keep it down

For a while

Though the temperatures

Won’t keep it long

x

Without worry,

We can hear the muffled sounds

Or spring and morning

Watch the white

Most of which will disappear

Before it’s trodden

Everywhere

x

No slush

No pushing it

This way or that

Simply have it

Behold the art

That won’t outlast the Grecian urn

Except by hours

Give credit to

The artist of the

Temporary beautiful

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C L Couch

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“The Artist of the Beautiful” is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  “Ode to a Grecian Urn” is a poem by John Keats.

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Photo by Nadiia Ploshchenko on Unsplash

snowfall January 13th 2021

Ukraine

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4

The Second Day

(x = space)

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The Second Day

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The day

After resurrection

Jesus appears to many

There is work to do

After the great miracle,

It seems

Affirming what Mary

Has said

Showing marks of wounds

To Thomas

Teaching, still

Cooking fish beside a fire

Talking about metaphors

Of sheep

Hoping Peter understands

Then after many days

Of words and signs

A leavetaking

Leaving instructions

Until he should come back

Having left a promise, too,

Of help

Like his

In fact, him still

This person will indwell

Like blood, like bone,

Like organs

Like thoughts and feelings

That’s pretty close

Inside

A guide

Someone to speak to worth

 A presence, bearing

Through the times

Of pleasure and of pain

The ease of life

The things we never think

To get through

x

It’s a busy time

After Easter Day

There will be letters

Words

Greetings, admonishments

Compassion

Affirming of directions

These all will last

In the book through Revelation

Until, in fact,

Parousia

And the obvious way to do it

Spirit inside, outside

All partners now

Treading the new fields

Of new Earth

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C L Couch

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Interested Bunny waiting for food.

photo by Stefan Fluck on Unsplash

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Flesh, Spirit, and Everything that Matters

(x = space)

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Flesh, Spirit, and Everything that Matters

(for Easter)

x

Good Friday becomes Easter

x

Good becomes better

Good becomes goodest

Abandonment is over

The teacher has returned

And the homeowner

And we each have a place in that home

It is so large

And always adding

x

The wounds are healed

There are reminders;

Mainly (surely),

He is alive

x

There was no question that he died

We wept, we keened

We buried

There was a stone

There was a guard

There was no doubt in this

The emperors

And would-be emperors

Clinked their glasses

And sat back,

Sighed

That’s done

The conspiracy is over

Plot succeeded

And we can blame other people

x

God and people are

Reconciled

Through life and death

And life again

The absurdity of the final miracle

Over death inexorable

Unavoidable

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And NOT forever

What?

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This is what we know

And now through resurrection

We must believe that

Death is not all

It is not inexorable

It is avoidable

We may die

We might sleep

If so,

We will awake again

How does this happen?

x

It is God

Who has a part in us

Who made us

Who is spirit

And flesh

And everything that makes up

A creator

And a lover

And a savior

Immanuel from Hebrew

God with us

x

We walk a bridge

That wasn’t there

God is on the other side:

In fact,

We can find out

God is on both sides

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C L Couch

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Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

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2

Vacant

(x = space)

x

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Vacant

(Holy Saturday)

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A day for scurrying

Like mice in light

Look for food,

Hide, rest

Listening for the next

Sounds that are not yours

That might be coming for you

Or might give you away

Now add on human sadness

The living of a tragedy

Like Oedipus,

Antigone

No happy ending possible

The hero is gone

The extraordinary years are gone

There is nothing now

But flight from arrest,

Weeping as at Babylon

x

Practicing tradition

In the dark

Since the source was killed

In horror

Sleeps without sleeping

Leaving everyone

To scurry to avoid arrest

To somehow persist

With broken hearts

Hope so far off

To be recalled

Stories torn

Healing forgotten

x

We count this day

An in-between

They knew it only

As an empty,

Weeping nothing

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C L Couch

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Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

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2

Nothing Good

(o = space)

o

o

Nothing Good

(Good Friday)

o

X

Saint Andrew’s cross

Peter’s cross is upside-down

Francis

Who was not crucified

Favored the T, it seems;

He received stigmata

o

The shape of history

The record of our story

Told in a symbol

Without words

One who knows no words

Inked or engraved

Still knows the story

Holding close

The symbol

Of enmity

Prevailed,

A death upon the cross,

Then hidden in the ground

o

There, that’s done:

Both broken discipleship

And keeping pristine empire

Are served

o

Such a cruelty of days

This day

To call it good

Nothing good about it

Really

We were at our worst

Nothing good about it

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C L Couch

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Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

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Passion Thursday

(x = space)

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Passion Thursday

(Maundy Thursday)

x

1

I am poor

I would love to be invited

To supper with Jesus

Because I’m hungry

And sometimes I am afraid

For food

I’m sorry

I want to hear the story

But all I can hear

Is on the inside, now

Maybe afterward

Or during

It’s rotten evangelism,

I guess,

On my part

Wanting the real food, first

Yes, there is a question

Of what’s real,

I’m certain

But feed with food, please,

First

Then I shall listen

To anything

Especially the truth

Sorry for the truth in

A yowling stomach,

In an actual meal

x

2

Who knows where they were

Or how many

What they ate,

If it was a meal of tradition

Or what was at hand

The way a meal is sometimes,

Checking our cupboards

And the refrigerator

Looking at the oven

Being hopeful

(hopeful people

hopeful oven)

x

Was Mary there?

Were any of the Marys there?

Not to serve but to take part

In equal parts

With the rest?

x

And why did Jesus call it new?

A new commandment

That was ancient,

Love one another

Exodus and Deuteronomy

Along with whose house

Shall we serve

And how

x

What might be new

To me

Was to call them friends

Upgrade from disciples

Friends

A loving term

x

Maybe the love of God

Between people and God

Was renewed

There was a person saying

You can know this God this way

You don’t have to wait

For the appointed time

The proper time

Is now

Kairos

Along with chronos

Love God anytime

As if at table with you

All of you

Any of you

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash

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2

Escape Room

(x = space)

x

x

Escape Room

x

Once again

For Passover,

Too many now

Are refugees

Fleeing Pharaohnic tyranny

Fear from explosions

Falling walls

Broken bodies

Family annihilation

Other countries take them

Sacred and secular

The people

The new homes

More than Jews in Ukraine

More people leaving

Refugees from Syria

Those who are “repatriated”

(strategic term)

From island nations

To the south

Those who want to leave for life

From Mexico,

Parts of Central America

And when there’s disaster,

We flee from parts

Of our land as well

x

Passover

For so many, many now

Might the angel of death

Give leave

For space and means

For victims

For escape

Blood on the lintels

Before leaving

Death for the victimizers

As angels

As an agency of God

See fit

x

Passover

For Jews in Ukraine

Jews in Israel

And everywhere

Good people have to run

For life

x

C L Couch

x

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For Jews fleeing Ukraine, Passover takes on new meaning

“Good morning! Happy morning!” Rabbi Avraham Wolff exclaimed, with a big smile, as he walked into the Chabad synagogue in Odesa on a recent morning. Russian missiles had just struck an oil refinery in . . .

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Photo by Vitamina Poleznova on Unsplash

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