A Christmas Season Message
(anytime)
So once it’s proclaimed
That
God loves you
And a presumption
God loves
Me
Then
We might consider
For ourselves and the world
God loves us
It’s not an easy love
Because the world
Isn’t easy
Rather
Selfish
And destructive
You know this
And the presence of God
Is not made so visible
Or at all
Though there are stories
And what does
This love
Mean
To ask catechistically
Well
It’s the strongest fragile going
Because the world and the devil
Seem
To have their ruinous say
And rule over
Temptations
Ready to wreck us
When we’re turned
Ignoring
Keep from us notions of
Redemption
With reconciliation
Back
Into the body of believers
And so much
Too much
Is hidden in the world
Like treasures found
In mines
As well as ancient
Tombs
That were new once in grief
And now perhaps
Remembrance
Truth hides too easily
Secrets used
To cover truths
Of course
And there’s a pushing under of
Open justice
That restores
By a greater interest
In control of
Rules
And closed-over until-
Declared
Tyranny
Meaning
Sinful attitudes and strategies
Allowed
Through good things bent
Too often by
Prosperity
And punishment
Which warps the understanding of
What’s fair and
Openly
Respectful
In favor of shaded interest
And is this real
Well
All of it must be
Making
Sad sense out of what
Explains
The way things are
And love is hard in this
And some would say impossible
As a human
Reaction
Understood
While love itself might go
Underground
Deeper than the superficial world
Knows
Love might have to hide
Rising when it’s risky
But
To seal the deal on planet Earth
And who knows where else
That better
Vows
Mean something
And we must take the chance to say
And sometimes write so
And say so
From a podium
Until repudiation of such public love with
Podium
And church or temple
Fired by hate
With worldly agendas behind
‘Til what is good
To hear
To bring us together
Is then ashes
Love is strong
Even when assailed
And it shall
Last beyond
But
Oh
It
Takes a beating now and then
Or all the time
Depending on who’s
Or what’s
In charge
But love regardless
God’s behind it and in front
And is invisible
Irascibly
It seems
Even to allow great danger to
Adherents
But love is
Called for
Anyway
And we should love
Each other even more visible than
God
‘Til God more obviously shows
Keeping the understanding
Learning
And the living that
As we might
Know
Singly and together
God loves us
C L Couch
(for its own lectern maybe, serving a sermon or another kind of message in a hall or other place or kind of gathering)
Photo by virkelighet on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
The Lord Hears
x
The Lord hears
Our prayers
We don’t how they’re
Tallied or remembered
If there’s a meeting
On each day in heaven
When and where
Angels receive assignments
Even discuss
The timing
x
Each word is heard
There is no requirement
We may ask in faith
Or doubt
We might be easy in our words
Or difficult
Say something
It is heard
x
It might be yes or no
Though the Lord is more than
Binary
There must be many ways
To answer prayer
Materially
Abstractly
With small mechanical change
Or simply in an attitude
Encouraged to endure
x
Good is still pretty good
Without the bad
There is a learning value
We suppose
But ask for what is needed
And think about
Confession
And thanksgiving
x
Dear and
Amen
Is not
Are not
Required
Say either or both
For a beginning and an ending
Or you know
Don’t
Leave the prayer suspended
In the air
For someone else to catch
To carry with endearment
For another’s hearing
And response
x
There’s always something next
Pray badly
Stutter in your heart
Speak
Or simply think your prayer with God
Pray what Jesus taught
As a responsibility
An affirmation
x
But however
The words go
And whichever
We will be heard by truth
And responded to
With love’s
Practicality
And maybe by our reckoning
A miracle
x
Listened
And responded to
The transactional nature of the world
Confirms
It points the way
Creation’s creator
Reckoning perfectly
Providing something always
In return
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by whoislimos on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Holy, Holy, Holy Days
x
Holidays
Are holy days
The changing of the y to i
Means that’s it time
To shop
x
There are fantastic Christmas passages
In The Dark Is Rising
And Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
You should read these
And read them
To each other
It could be a new tradition
x
While you’re at it,
You could read
On your own
With a ceremony
Number the Stars
And The Giver
With an ending that
My students argued
Without consensus
And so we wrote the writer
Who wrote back
To say
She was impressed
That students cared so much
x
That story might end
At Christmas time
Not that the time must be
Sectarian
There is room (Spare Oom) to share
And the world’s time
Is always its own
Happy holidays
Happy holy days
However you work these out
Delight
x
C L Couch
x
x
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
x
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Hurry Up, Please, It’s Time
x
Time to pray
My God, you are here
Sometimes your presence
Seems so thin
Like vapor
In the morning
Then sometimes a
Numbered weight
Sometimes a fire
That frights
x
It’s how we imagine you
Though you are manifest
As you are manifest
Not invisible
Not hiding behind a tree
Awaiting human mischief
For a peak
You are not voyeurish
x
As it is, you’ve seen it
Heard it
Touched it all
Our antics are not of interest
Unless we should please you
x
That would be
A forest of content
With scenes of love and action
(love in action)
That would delight
In fact
And in fact
Of all the constituents
Of nature
And believers
x
Animals might pray
Might live in prayer
We must talk
Must confess
Must ask
Though, yes, we may
Keep it in the mind
Just behind
Or just inside our tongues
x
You hear us
Remarkably, some time
And every time,
Which is the miracle
The need
Even the requirement
To pray
For us to mutter something
You to hear
x
Sorry
Thanks
Love
Amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
(I take the title from T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”)
x
Photo by Alex Wing on Unsplash
x
I hope it is a holiday of blessings for you, regardless of tradition or having no tradition. It’s a time when at least we speak to peace on Earth, which means more people think about it, if only in reaction. And reactive thought can realized in action.
I’m still dealing with new pain, and I hardly sleep at night (from old pain and the new). I’m sorry, this makes me less communicative than I’d so much like to be. I’m trying some new medication. Maybe that will provide enough amelioration.
I wish and pray for you a Merry Christmas, leading to the start of what will be a Happy New Year.
Christopher
Let Earth
(end of Advent, Christmas Eve or Christmas day, or, you know, anytime)
And where is joy?
It’s here
Depending on your mood
Or how you’re treated
How you treat someone else
You may not see it
The wrong ones will not pay attention
The ones who are wronged will
Because they must
It often goes this way
With wisdom to
Make a choice,
A pledge to difference
If you can,
In all moods choose joy
If you can’t, maybe joy will find you
If not, we’ll have to wait
Endure
‘Til there is allowance
And recourse
Sorry if that’s hollow
Everything cannot be fixed
In a day
A year
And not a moment
But where is joy?
It’s here
If within opacity like crystals in
The tube of a kaleidoscope
But made of a magic kind of gem that
Someday must crash through
Into release
A new promise of day
Without involvement of the persecutor
With unbound chances
To live openly and well
A day of birth
Such as this one
C L Couch
https://pixabay.com/en/winter-patterns-freezes-design-20135/
As We Are, No Other
(Christmas Eve, anytime)
This is a good surprise
We are invited to a dance
And we don’t have to know
Anything about steps or rhythm
Or the key of the orchestra
It’s a party, too
All we have to do to respond
Is see the card
In leaves or
Hear the invitation in the branches’
Song to sky
It’s for a birthday, yes
Don’t worry about timing
The child knows of better things
And will manage precision for you
We have this chance
Will it come again?
Yes, I think so
But we have it
Why not take part now?
Mister Dickens claimed
A few pounds make us happy
So Fezziwig will close the shop
And take the silent cost
In that
And pay for decorations, too
We might have to be our own accountants
White elephants might attend
(maybe black cats
zebras to negotiate)
There might be stone soup for supper
Served in lucky pots
Hey, but it’s a party
And if we own nothing
All the better for arriving
What do newborns have,
And how welcome are they?
It’s a party without consequences,
Because we will behave
Enjoying the relief of good, clean fun,
Everyone welcome
The birds will sing
If we don’t want to
And sing, anyway
Nature speaks in volumes
It’s miracle
We could provide the miracle in
Listening
Enjoy it all
Bring what you have
Or nothing
Remembering that at this kind of
Festival,
We are the gifts
C L Couch
note
White elephant is a metaphor from the USA and Britain, based on Asian custom (with real elephants).
https://pixabay.com/en/elephant-skin-elephant-245071/
All at Once Everywhere
(for Christmas day, anytime)
It’s a holiday everywhere
Except where it’s not
Sometimes in some places that
Is normal
Some places not so much
Where there is suffering
Where there is illness without comfort
Where there is nothing but alone
And, you know,
Christ came for these
An infant will grow up into infinity
We will treat him horribly
He will return, because he loves us
More than that
He is here
He is with us, now
And all the angels
With the saints
That’s us
C L Couch
https://pixabay.com/en/frost-winter-morning-snow-season-633826/
Do We Know
(Advent, anyone’s time this time of year)
I’m up early for the solstice
Don’t mean to be
Insomnia (tinnitus)
But there are those for whom
It’s important to be ready
The Earth will lean the other way
And in the north it will be cold
But days will be creeping longer
Into spring
We’ll have winter first
It starts today
Things juxtapose
Solstice (winter’s own)
Saturnalia
Birth of Mithra
And a few more days ‘til Christmas
Sometime between now and then
Depending on the lore
It’s New Year’s
Were these competing claims
To take these days into one’s own
A hut, a tent, a town
A castle, or an empire
And who wants them now
No one except those who think they should
Own time in the way that no one gets to
What we have is mishmash
I have a cousin who has her birthday on
The twenty-fifth
Thanksgiving
End of term
A press of selling and of buying
Saint Nicholas, Santa Lucia
Christkindl
And Druids, styled or otherwise, will
Light bonfires against the
Darkness toward a
Surrogate promise
Of good seasons
All the festivals in my ignorance
I don’t know of
All to say
Something’s coming
Someone
Do you have a name
I think I do
C L Couch
“The Giant Sundial of Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, India, also known as the Samrat Yantra (The Supreme Instrument), stands 27m tall. Its shadow moves visibly at 1 mm per second, or roughly a hand’s breadth (6 cm) every minute.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sundials
The Skiff
(Advent, anytime)
It’s the twentieth
Now we count for real
Will we have peace—
Will Bethlehem be accessible
This year
Peace in the heart
Might be all that’s left
Sometimes it must feel that way
And, honestly, it’s a good place
To start
Accent on the time
To find the quiet
Or stop the world another way
Pause it now and then
Five days
For remembrance
Make it our own liturgy of
Supplication
Over whatever waters we might have,
Still or stormy
Reaching for, and as,
A beacon through the mist
That’s joy
C L Couch
By laszlo-photo – https://www.flickr.com/photos/laszlo-photo/110887318/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5948809
In the early morning, a fishing skiff remains docked on the waters of Santa Marta Bai near Soto, Curacao (Netherland Antilles).
clcouch123 
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