Monday morning
everyone needs easier
a half an hour
and I haven’t really
said
anything
but what would you like to hear
on a Monday morning from
this culture
to
your part in it
or within other lines
I’d like to talk of God and imagine a Monday
morning church
clean
from Sunday
shining surfaces not having to be bright
but
burnished from use
and now
the building takes a breath and welcomes
truly interested
to work
a clean church
from
being mostly empty and a day off
for the pastor
a chance for visitors to enter
and
to breathe
and to wish good Sunday for the Spirit there
and then and now
a restful
presence
as if the sabbath were on this day instead
when
we might pause or at least
work
with less intrusion
if intrusion is the way
but
everyone needs easier
hours
you know
like the Genesis example
a good
day of
taking in the quiet noise
then
all return
outside
n.b.
and could be Sunday in the temple
for the same
or
in the mosque the time before the next
call
to prayer
bless the cleaners
c l couch
photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
vicissitude
Luke 22:44-46
if I were tired from sorrow only
that
is exhausting
and stillness took over my body to
sleep
and I slept
and then I were scolded
after the supper
after
being called friend the first
time and
having been asked specifically for
companionship
awake
and praying with
the Lord
and wouldn’t I be exhausted
too
and so could lose my way through praying
and it is night
and it gets late
and
yes
it’s Jesus
and it’s also human me
and if Jesus said to wait and pray
would I not have been invested
with
the energy and other wherewithal to join
and
maybe I had received
and still
slept
anyway
so there’s not excuse
but an excuse
and
I’m made of willing spirit and unwilling
flesh
and how to feel when Jesus tells
me I
have
failed
c l couch
44 And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
45 When Jesus rose from prayer and returned to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” He asked. “Get up and pray so that you will not enter into temptation.”
Luke 22
Berean Study Bible
photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash
up hill and
well
I wasn’t sure
you’d really like to know
or I
and
so let go the pedals
that I might
on the hill
the downward side
coast a while and like the trite crossing
I could
look
yes
at you and around
and listen
c l couch
photo by Kiwihug on Unsplash
the process of the psalm
how did the psalmist write
I wonder
how was the work composed
what
was the process
if
in paper and with pen
or quill or frayed papyrus
were there amanuenses
who
waited for each word
or
was the draft done mentally
and with the harp
at hand to test the measures and then
to set down
and
then all gone over many times
before the purpose
of subtitles
realized
by singers in or near the temple or at
the shrine before there was
a temple
serving
as the composition served
and
served through generations of us
in this age
and
we have the paper
anyway and some give music for an art
for
what’s on there for conveyance
and
we can replicate the act
when all
the people gathere or
for one
depending on the intimacy referenced
and yet it’s all
there
for use
I suppose
if sometimes there is an I or a you or a we implied
and underlying
sometimes to say
the Earth itself should sing
to praise
provision and the might
that is
implied
or saved until a parting of the sea of
food fall from heaven
should
be needed
and did we think of these or simply fear
our need
and then the exigence addressed
though miracle
of
power
and
yes
we could say of timing
that we need what we need
when
needed
though we don’t command the schedule anymore
than the agenda
of what
God can do
or
when
so sing to the Lord or
read it off the page
our
expressions and intentions
as we might own
what
is given there and over centuries
and to you
to me
to us
and now
c l couch
Psalm 96
1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise . . .
[NIV]
photo by Joël Vogt on Unsplash
those three doctrinal things
what is for everyone today
hope
except by those who will not hope
not believe or have
enough
it seems not
toward wanting more
yet
wanting
more
faith
to believe in us
and in the world enough
if only inimically and
so
the spirit more with heaven as an element
maybe an application until
the spirit
obvious everywhere
and like the poles
should
peace prevail
then go to love
and what
shall
love be if not reliable like seasons
except
to be founding and producing
all the time
what does better
and
reliably
so we might rely and not
have to create our loves
and re-create
all
the time
but depend
and so have a fullness
in
independence
hope has wings
then
while faith has raiment
so
love has
the halo for sanctity
and
could be worldly important
though it’s also ordinary
and to
elevate the
ordinary
so that
even
if the land is occupied
we must hold the love and
so resist
even repel
siege
holders
until the enemy goes back to a phantom place
to plan some
more
while we keep to
and live of our own
until
the world change and we have
with everyone
if
not equally
but all
the time
in
love
c l couch
1 Corinthians 13:13 (World English Bible)
“These three things will remain for ever. They are faith, hope, and love. And love is the greatest of them.”
[yeah, I wrote about hope first]
Enemy-occupied territory--that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
the Donner film
on Sunday afternoon
how is
it
to be super
and how to dole it out
what gets taken
care of
who
and who does not get
the saving
since we tend to think there are limitations
of time
and energy and
can’t slip through dimensions of these
yet
and
don’t know how that works
so calculate from now
to now
and what is heard
and what is the response
and if not
in dimensions
how
about the nanosecond that maybe
the extraordinary her might pass through
to help
or simply to stop the wars with
a warning that
the rest is up
to us
so
humans
get it
together
and I will be there as I can
billions to help
beyond one
even
the amazing one
and finally like
us
c l couch
photo by Wil Stewart on Unsplash
a silly rabbit
by no theology
and God
I want
to be with you
and be here with you
‘cause this
is what I know
and
have I had a taste
some kind of earthly introduction
to paradise and I don’t know
could
be in worship maybe
out of my
tradition to take
part in Communion
feeling the elements of you go in and
down
I guess
and all around
to sound puerile about it
like the wheels on the bus
or
the digging of Mike Mulligan or
go
dog
go
go
me
go
to God and not
to die
but so to live
and what I have for now
and navigating fields
poorly
‘til what I have is gone
except for spirit and
the body
that with a home and these
shall
last
we’re told or by some impulse anyway
to know
c l couch
several things from childhood are cited (and more I am remembering)
photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash
our books of hours
God is love
and is it
tiring
and is
the rock of faith
for
metaphor
the lion
first of Judah
and shall we believe what the figures
shall be pointing
toward
as we consider openly
without agenda first
‘til
we go there to find
what might
be our purpose in our tasks
that is
fair and openly
which is a matter of the mind and for a metaphor
the heart
though we accept the source
and
then the spirit
that is an entity and real
pointing
only toward creator
who
is the love
somehow
for
real
and this dance
then
between the thing and its referral
which is the contest
of
a poem
and what the poem itself might indicate
which
is what
to know and to accept and then
to embrace
for faith
and life
and through that all the rest
in a holy now
and in the holy hours
to come
c l couch
photo by Şahin Sezer Dinçer on Unsplash
discretion
a prayer
1
I’m not sure what
to say
what would you like to hear
what
would be good
what would be loving
I wish I were an expert
in
what I am unsure
theology
perhaps
mathematics of the mind
or
of philosophy
if I knew church law
or
could know business far better
than I do and the business of
two people
God
human
spirit
and through all
too much for one
as the world is excessive for
one person
and yet I don’t understand
the two
much less the three
in one
with one of me
too much
I know too little
2
yet who
receives faith but anyone
and
faith must go this way
neither trick
nor contest
but acceptance
and
decision
yet even those who cannot choose
might be as
saved as any other
so there should be hope
well
all around
and I might know you
too
at least enough
to pray
and live in a bit of expectation
of some health
some peace
at last
c l couch
photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash
Recent Comments