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Glory

(x = space)

x

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Glory

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It’s a Sunday feeling

For those who have a Sunday

To be speaking

And singing to the Lord

x

The pastor cites

The shortest psalm

As an invocation,

Which is an invitation

More so a directive

To be singing

x

Can you imagine David

Dancing first

Before the ark

When it was brought into

Jerusalem?

There was singing then

And all the instruments

We’ve heard about

That played

x

Today is Mission Sunday at this church

So there are connections to the world

x

Everyone’s invited

Everywhere

Not as a number

But as you,

You are invited

To meet Jesus

Through us

Not because we are messiahs

But because

We can quote him

Tell his story

Show you something of his love

For everyone

And the hope that the whole human world

Might be saved,

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Which is God’s wish

But not God’s will

For God has mitigated God

In favoring our will

And our decisions

Yes, it’s the reason why

The world is so flawed

And screws up so badly

x

That according to the story

Has made us

The silent planet in the universe

Burning other planets

With what happened in the garden

And then

Going quiet

While the planet’s fate is determined

Of itself

x

Then there will be noise

x

But here is David

In Jerusalem

And there is great noise

Locally

That celebrates

That helps to consecrate

The presence and the symbol

And our rendering of faith

In holy God

And in each other

As neighbors

And a nation

x

The world will not know you, Lord;

And nations will fall

x

We could wish it were not so,

And we do

x

But not everyone will be there

In the sky

The circle won’t be broken

But our hearts,

Well,

They are other matters

x

It’s a Sunday feeling

For those who have a Sunday

And take one

Or on another day

x

We have been ransomed

From kidnapping,

From the prisons

Huge or small—all intimate

When they should not

Have to be

x

The world violates our souls

And yet we believe

And from the ashes

Of all sins consumed

At last,

We shall rise

Who choose to rise

x

The glory of the Lord

In homely ways

Inside the heart

We do not understand

x

How something so

Cosmically grand

Can live in something

So small

As our souls,

One soul by one

x

Then there is the glory

That we read about

And then imagine:

The universe made straight

While also bending low,

We with that

And all the Earth

That knows at last

This is it,

The certainty of God

In blinding presence

That will not hurt our eyes

And the song of angels,

Unbinded song

That should destroy

But will not touch eardrums

Adversely

x

The glory of the Lord

Clearly

All there is,

Compelling

As to break our souls

Though it will not—in fact,

We’ll never had been

Better,

Freer,

Then to get

Our next assignments

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C L Couch

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Photo by Christian Cagni on Unsplash

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Mille Grazie per Preghiera

(x = space)

x

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Mille Grazie per Preghiera

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I feel as if

I should offer

A prayer

To God

For something

x

Gratitude

Confession

Promise or

At least desire

To do better

x

Petition,

Intercession

Plus my own things

x

I’m not sure

How that’s the praise

That’s called for

While it seems

Mostly like complaining

x

Except to say thank you;

Maybe there’s praise

In that

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash

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sorry for any Italian language that I broke

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thank you

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2

Wealth of Nations

(x = space)

x

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Wealth of Nations

x

O God

For invocation

Oh, God

To plea

Our world groans

With war

And the imbalance

Of the greedy

Systems

x

Justice should be a system

Greed is not good

Unless you’re winning

For a while

While all our cells corrupted

May yet cry for mercy

x

The ears to hear

Might be

The last to go

x

God

Help us

And forgive us

The Earth is ours

And we forget

And leave it to a few

Who vote for nothing

But self-fattening

And a self-deceiving glimpse

Of real power

x

Let all rise

(the poorly-

agendaed, too)

To march

Or stand in place

To sing

As if

Accompanying Earth

With all the antiphons

The spheres above

Below

That glide

And when against each other

Glory in the sacred touch

The music

Of all order

And all chaos,

Arranged

As creation’s gift

x

And this is wealth

Not the other

Once we feed each other

And can stand or march

(or sit with age

or disability

and purpose)

To hear the strains

Of everything

And offer ours

x

Our gift

Unto the glory

Of Earth

And all-around’s,

Of God’s all

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C L Couch

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Photo by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash

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We Need You and Sometimes We Can’t

(x = space)

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We Need You and Sometimes We Can’t

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Help us to love you,

O Lord,

Though

You may live without us

x

Still, we can exist

Together

In a bond that is

Extraordinary:

Of energy, of will,

Of love without agenda,

All around

x

It’s hard to love invisibly

With thoughts and feelings

We can’t see

And then

Your presence, Lord

x

With things unseen

And unevidenced

In other ways,

Our senses confounded

For lack of usefulness

The kind employed in what we do

In anything—and

How may we

Sense you?

x

There is stigmata for a few

And apparitions;

There are those

Who hear your words

In air

Or those emblazoned

Understood

Upon the heart

x

We want to know;

We get frustrated

Then we worry

For offense

(offending God does not seem smart)

Or we give up

Ignore

And in internal ways

We walk away

x

But you are there

We should believe

And within parameters

Of material and abstract

Hope for more

x

That on this side

We may have in measures

That will have to do

For life

And faith

And all the things we have to do

To make things better

One by one

And altogether

x

Tolerance

And patience

Peace

And feeding

Giving water

Giving hope for more

In all the needs of life

(material and abstract)

x

Help us, Lord,

Or let us help ourselves

And the others;

Be with us

And invisibly

Leave us to choose

In respect

Of how we’re made

And otherwise arranged

Our will

That we often apply well

Even without

Preternatural accoutrements

Composing a few rituals

For service

Pledging how to live

On our own

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C L Couch

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Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

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Tent Revival

(x = space)

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Tent Revival

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God of my thoughts,

You guide me

As I’m open

You fill the vessel

Pour it right

Not that there aren’t miracles

There are

You guide me

When I refuse to guide myself

It is the other side of faith

The pledge we made

A while ago

You can guide the pain that’s there,

Which is good when I am

Overwhelmed

Help me, Lord

I’m tired

I don’t know what I am doing

What a good time

For an angel to intrude

There is pain

You can use it

With the rest of me

All yours

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C L Couch

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Photo by Should Wang on Unsplash

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8

God = Not a Sadist

(x = space)

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God = Not a Sadist

(read God equals not a sadist)

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Pain is good

It teaches us

It tempers us

We come out wholer people

Better for it

Pain is the megaphone

Says Lewis

Pain is loud

Ginsberg might say

(might say)

Pain howls

x

But it doesn’t howl

Because it’s good:

Pain is bad

It hurts

Great pain hurts

Great

After great pain

The formal feeling comes

Does God allow pain?

Does God wish it?

I don’t know

Christ in the garden

Asked not to feel hurt

And he was

Severely

Bloody

Hurt

Until he died

We say he had to die

Well and good

For theology

And there was real joy

In his returning

Perhaps he felt it first

x

I don’t like to hurt

I hope you don’t

I’m in pain now

My neck, my lower back

My eyes from lack of sleep

I have heart disease

And it seems my heart and lungs

Work against me

When it hurts to breathe

Though they are not the source

They are victimized

By fluid

That should not be flowing,

Pressing there

x

Worse, my brother dies from cancer

And it hurts

The medicine might help

It also creates new trials

A passing between pain

And something like sedation

And somehow in the middle

Is what’s living

x

And you hurt

I don’t know how

And the world hurts

In every fracture

x

So where is God?

Where is the love of God?

Where is God is love?

God is there

Love’s there

If God allows

Much less or much more

Created pain

Then there is love as well

Also created

And I think

Preferred

x

But pain is hard

It’s not good

We say pain is gain

But it isn’t

Pain is a signal that

Something’s wrong

And we’ll find out

Everyone finds out

The world dissembles, but

Pain is true

Pain sometimes teaches

Usually after the fact

Or in someone else’s story

x

I think if pain

Could not be real

If we couldn’t have it

That would be

Better

We might say we’d

De-evolve without it

Maybe so

But then

The world would have to change

And would be changed

We don’t know how

We live with pain

We even bear it

When it won’t

Go away,

x

Which doesn’t mean

We should like it

That God should like it

Wish it

Before the fall,

We might well guess

There was no pain

x

Sorry

There’s pain now

I don’t wish for you

Your pain means

A great deal to me

I cannot make it

Magic

Go away

Or mine

We’re stuck

And while we’re stuck

Comes all the learning

All the tempering like

Metal fired

And then struck

At least we’re not the ashes

At least we’re here

For everything

Imagined,

More so

Realized

And that’s what we have to say

Pain is real

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C L Couch

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(a Sunday School discussion from James 1, an epistle in the Christian New Testament)

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notes (references)

Mere Christianity

“Howl”

“After Grean Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes”

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[photographer’s narration] When we visited Utö, the most outer island of this beautiful archipelago in the place we call Finland, I allowed myself to be guided by the incredible energy of Inca, the daughter of the family we were visiting there. She took me to a series of abandoned bunkers from the times this island was a military strategic point and there I found this graffiti that represent very well the feeling of all that has to do with military, war, conflict and drama. With love from Korpo.

Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

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First Page of Every Book

(x = space)

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First Page of Every Book

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What might God say

But that

There was a word

The word in fact

Was God

And in our words

God breathes

And the making of the Earth

Was God’s

And our keeping

Or rejecting

Is our own

x

This from opening

The gospel

Pick a book of books

For all the horror

The unmaking

The possessing

And abandoning

Of spirits

We say good news

Inhabits

And abounds

Hope for ourselves

The grownups

And the children

Hope for the world

Of people

And of ground and water

x

For in the beginning

Was a word

Beside all words

It was love

And inspiration

Breath of God

And God

A word that made

From nothing

Gave us

Everything

With the proviso of

Two trees

And one rule

x

So much for that

We’re here as are here

There is hope left

In the box

Made of word perhaps

And this its second purpose

x

So many stories

Now

For elucidation

And companionship

Upon the journey

In the other way

From a detail of

A flaming sentinel

An ersatz beacon

Showing us

The way

We may not go

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Andrew A on Unsplash

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A Prayer for Running Fast

(x = space)

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A Prayer for Running Fast

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God,

Keep us this day

A helicopter crash in Ukraine

Kills civilians

But then it is a war at home

Battlefields lost their discretion

Long ago

x

There are fires

In my area

With human loss

And then materials

House fires

Are fearful to contemplate

To see

To hear the testimony

On the news

Of loss

And victims

Who are hurt

Who die

Who die later on

Because house fires have consequences

Changing life

After what happens now

x

There are changes

Some by force

We can blame nature

Or each other

The neighborhood beneath the bridge

Is ending

By the hands of institutions

Other hands will help

With the newly homeless

So that there will be

Breathing out

That problem resolved,

We’ll say for now

Then think about other things

Quickening

Our palates

x

So what do we care about?

What happens to ourselves

That’s natural

Our reaching toward

The plight

Or the good news

Of others

That is an instinct

From an impulse

God-given trait

Or capacity

We train

And practice

Like a discipline

Like any discipline

Run fast?

Care for others

x

Be a coach

Be a pal

You are sovereign

God of gods and

Lord of the self-styled lords

You are our king

Our queen

Allegiance

And tribute

Are ours to give

To pledge from our own knowing

And our gifting

And yet you’ll turn around

To teach us

And provide

x

It is a mystery

A frustrating mystery

Of labor

Sweat

And drops of blood

Each day

In all our stations

And yet we ask

In all our stations

Be with us

Start and close the day with us

Talk with us

Provide

Not as a tontine

Not as prophecy

But like love notes

Or neighbors come to coffee

And to be with us

When we stumble

Or when

Dear things

Dear lives

Must crash

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C L Couch

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Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash

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Ukraine’s interior minister among at least 14 killed in helicopter crash

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraines-interior-minister-among-at-least-14-killed-in-helicopter-crash/ar-AA16t1eO

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dispersed

(x = space)

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dispersed

(from the beginning of the book of James)

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we were together, Mom and Dad

(physical or meaningful)

now we are spread far

we can always say

the Romans did this

but there is our own

polemics

stranding us

separated

in a world driven by

its own prince

that drove Jesus

in the wilderness

from one arid part to another

x

I’m sorry we are no longer

together

though we have letters

we are the legacy of David, still

we are a people

and, as always,

we are family

I hope you are well where you are

I hope that work and food

come easily

I fear, because I know

such things are never certain

we came away with what we had

some maybe had accounts

and interests along the Mediterranean,

generally

x

we live today

and in the Messianic time

and must take hope in that

God will return

God also waits for us

like the shepherd by the

clear stream,

both to beckon

x

and God is with us, now

with love

x

with love,

this note from your child

we all are children now

again

x

c l couch

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James is a brief letter in the Christian New Testament; the pastor preached on James this morning at Covenant Evangelical Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana (USA)

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photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

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