Marshall Smith
I
sit outside your tomb, o god, in sackcloth and in ashes,
mourning
the death of the eternal:
you
whom I have sought and followed, thou giver of
light
and life, now buried;
you,
sought with prayer and fasting and denial,
you,
sought with wine and song, now buried.
Lo
these many years I nursed you, setting your broken bones
and
helping you to stand again,
hiding
your infirmities lest I see for myself
your
weakness, o god in decline.
Now,
o god, you are fallen and shattered, dust to dust returned,
and
I alone am left, singing dirges:
O
god of my fathers, you are gone!
O
god of wrath and vengeance, you
are gone!
O
god of myself, you are gone!
O
god of all, you are gone!
O self, what is to become of thee!
I
sit outside your tomb, o Lover, in expectancy and hope,
awaiting
the resurrection of the eternal:
you
who were parent and teacher, thou giver of
storm
and suffering, now become
Lover,
bathed with perfume and clove and aloe
in
the dark and heat of night.
Now,
o Lover, be risen and awake, eternal to eternal returned,
and
I will wait for you, singing songs:
O
Lover of my heart, come forth!
O
Lover of deep breath and strong desire, come forth!
O
Lover of myself, come forth!
O
Lover of all, come forth!
O Self, what may become of thee!
I
sit outside your tomb, o god, and mourn your death
with
dirges. For with childish imaginings did I imagine you,
and build your idol in my image: dust
to dust returned.
I
sit outside your tomb, o Lover, and await your resurrection
with
songs. For now with different hopes do I know you,
and seek the
wisdom you now would give: eternal to eternal returned.
O Lover of my heart, come forth!
John 4:39-42 Many
Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s
testimony, “He
told me everything I have ever done.” So
when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he
stayed there two days. And
many more believed because of his word. They
said to the woman, “It
is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for
ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Both
his critics and his followers would have said Jesus violated all sorts of
religious instruction and dogma on his trip through Samaria, but because he did,
the people of the Samaritan village had the opportunity to believe his good
news. Because his disciples followed him in dangerous faith, they had another
opportunity to witness the Master’s
new way of living.
Pope
Francis said recently, “There
are two ways of thinking and of having faith: we can fear to lose the saved or
we can want to save the lost. Even today, it can happen that we stand at the
crossroads of these two ways of thinking. For Jesus, what matters above all is
reaching out to save those far off, healing the wounds of the sick, restoring
everyone to God’s
family. And this is scandalous to some people! Jesus is not afraid of this kind
of scandal. He does not think of (those) who are scandalized even by a work of
healing, scandalized before any kind of openness, by any action outside of
their mental and spiritual boxes, by any caress or sign of tenderness which
does not fit into their usual thinking and their ritual purity.”
Do
I follow Jesus out of a belief that is built only upon religious instruction
and dogma, or much worse, do I follow Jesus simply out of societal convention
or tradition? Do I try to confine God inside my tiny mental and spiritual
boxes? Or do I follow Jesus in a dangerous faith built upon his new way of
living, and do I allow God the freedom To Be in my life? During Lent, is there
anything in my ideas and beliefs about God or Jesus that I need to abandon so
that I can live ever more fully into Jesus’ new
way?
What about you? Do you need to sing
dirges for god? Are there resurrection songs to learn?
0 comments:
Post a Comment