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Passion Thursday

(x = space)

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Passion Thursday

(Maundy Thursday)

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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

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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)

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Was Mary there?

Were any of the Marys there?

Not to serve but to take part

In equal parts

With the rest?

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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

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What might be new

To me

Was to call them friends

Upgrade from disciples

Friends

A loving term

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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

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C L Couch

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Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash

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All Love

(x = space)

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All Love

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All of us

For Jesus

All of each of us

I heard it in Sunday School

Today

Sure, you may have it

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Really?

If Jesus wants this broken body

And this tired mind

And all the loves

Requited, unrequited

Then

Jesus may have them

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Is that so much?

Not really—you

May have it

Have it all,

Jesus

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C L Couch

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Photo by Matt Marzorati on Unsplash

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The Gospel

(x = space)

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The Gospel

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The gospel in a word

Is love

The gospel in a word

Is news

The gospel in two words is

Saving story

The gospel is for you and me

And all of us

Yes, it is

No one is excluded

No matter how we wish it so

We might be disbelieving

When we meet them

Later on

Even then

It is a book of love, after all

A story of salvation

Good news for everyone

No one excluded

No adult swim

No east or west

North or south

Exclusions

I don’t know about a ladies’ night

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C L Couch

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Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

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The Way Love Is

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The Way Love Is

(Martin Luther King, Junior)

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Today is the Monday

We set aside

To honor

Martin Luther King, Junior

Whose birthday

Is close by

He is not honored for

Perfection

But for testimony

In words and action

To the truth

That we are equal

And together we can change

The world

For the better

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He was a minister

Though anyone

Who acts to change

The world

For the better

Is a

Symbol of God

His name was not

At first

Martin Luther

(talk with his father),

But anyone

Who speaks

To truth in love

Is truly on the roll

Of heaven

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We need truth-talking

And truth-acting

We need to be

Encouraged

We need to act

Together

The children of

Earth for the

Now, the next

Children of

The Earth

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C L Couch

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Landscape

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

Oostvaardersplassen, Lelystad, Netherlands

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Word Processing

(x = space)

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Word Processing

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In the beginning

There was God with the host

There were earth, darkness, abyss

And water

There were words

To explain

To initiate

Decrees

Then division and formation,

Creation as we know the story

Happened

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Later when the story’s told again,

We will say

Everything was made

With a word

The word could have been gravity

Or love

It was love

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C L Couch

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(Einstein is quoted claiming that the greatest force in the universe is not gravity but love.)

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Photo by David Carboni on Unsplash

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Grace Is Free

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Grace Is Free

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You tell me the process

That lets out grace

Into the world

I can’t begin to say

Because it is not up to me

While my knowledge says

It’s free and freely given

By one who could

Have charged a lot

Rather made it free

Who releases grace

No one but one

Who does not keep it in a jar

To be dispensed with tickets

Shining and uncornered

But ready through unnailed openings

To give it without reason

Save for an abiding, relentless

Always hoping interest

In love and salvation

Grace is free

It’s freedom

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C L Couch

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Photo by Thomas Millot on Unsplash

Selonnet, France

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Inventory

(x = space)

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Inventory

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So what shall we say,

Shall love have us

Or hate?

Shall we hate our neighbors

For their differences?

Straightforward questions

On a day when nothing new

Is under the sun

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But we can make it new,

Should we drain our scorn

Like pouring out

The rain barrel for

The change

Into nourishing places

That don’t need

To be so parched

Anymore

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We can grow

And nurture other things to grow

Until there’s verdure

In the sunshine

And the rain,

Everything growing in balance

For the change

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I write on an angry day

Because I have to alter it

I need my spirit

I should care for yours

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C L Couch

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Photo by Wolfgang Rottmann on Unsplash

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Law of Love

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Law of Love

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What does

God want of us?

Through the prophets,

We are told

To walk humbly

With an arch concern for

Justice,

More generally

To repent

And turn toward God,

The people

And the nation

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Through Moses

We are given

Laws from God

On Sinai,

Starting with

The ten laws that

We know,

Most of which

Tell us what not

To do

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God speaks

Through angels

And sometimes

Maybe

God speaks through us

In smaller ways,

Perhaps

One to another

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The measure,

The pendulum

That swings with ease

When set with

Accord

Should be love

That might be difficult

And hard

And sacrificial

But moves with equanimity

Respecting all

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Sometimes in silence

Bearing nonetheless

The message

Of the prophets

Of the angels

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All enact

The law of love

(James would say

the law

of freedom)

And thus

Are closing in

On what God wants

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C L Couch

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12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2 (Christian New Testament, New International Version)

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The Old Bell

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

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Without Further Ado

(x = space)

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Without Further Ado

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I’d like to say something

About God

Not because God needs me to

God is a spirit

God is love

These are not original things

To say

God is a lion,

The lion of Judah

Also nothing new

Though rather wondrous

God is mine

And also God is waiting

Though I think

We tend to think

That it’s the other way around

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That we wait for God

And once God arrives,

We wait on God

Sometimes the waiting

Either kind

Is cheery

Sometimes it’s not

We wait for God to relieve us

Either of comfort or

Responsibility

We wait for answers

To a local hell

That breaks our spirits

As the ground

Might break

Near a volcano

Or as a sinkhole

(we have sinkholes where

I live)

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Then to have God appear

To speak

Or touch on our hearts

But we will not serve

(that kind of waiting)

Because things have been too awful,

Thank you very much

How about

You serve me for a while,

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Which will happen

God will serve

God serves,

In fact,

To have made everything

To arrange for energy

In nature

To bring light and dark

Rain and sun

Snow in winter

Water steaming off leaves

In summer

(or all the time in tropics)

Maybe there is nothing more

God will want to do

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And yet I think

God is not only creator

But newly-creating

And creative

Explain the platypus

Or bird-of-paradise

Or human will

With the lack of it

Everywhere else

In nature

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God is many things,

Which might mean

Always new

Nearby a platypus

In grace

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C L Couch

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John 4:24, 1 John 4:3, Revelation 5:5

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Istanbul sky from September 2005.

Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash

Istanbul Sky, Istanbul, Turkey

Published on June 6, 2019

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