This Is the Kingdom

The table set for many,
the supper where we're fed:
This is all heaven's plenty;
this is the broken bread.

The daily hidden labors,
the widow's mites we bring:
This is the love of neighbor
and worship of the king.

The candle on the table
illuming every face:
This is the light we pray for,
this ordinary grace.

The endless tasks unchanging
yet ever deepening:
This is the song of angels,
as it has ever been.

The ones we give our all to
as moments turn to lives:
This is the pearl we long for,
and seek at any price.

And they that come to seek us,
whose voices call us home:
This is the Lord, Christ Jesus;
this is the kingdom come.

4. Advent, Kerzen, Datum/Uhrzeit: 24.12.2013 18:55:59 By Dirk Vorderstraße – Adventskranz, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31871900

As They Who Burned Before Us

For Allhallowtide:

As they who burned before us
enkindled with your love
shone out your grace and glory,
so may we shine, O God.

Some glowed in chambers hidden;
some lit the sky like stars,
and all of them your children 
afire as your own heart.

For some your made as tinder
so quick to catch the spark,
and some you slowly kindle
who longest light the dark,

and some forever aching
hold light we never view,
but all are of your making
and all are made for you.

You made us to be embers:
Then touch us with the flame
that every saint remembers,
that never burns the same.

And someday you will show us
how every spark's inspired:
Your own eternal glory
that sets each heart afire.

All Souls’ Day, J Schikaneder 1888. This oil painting shows an elderly woman praying after placing a wreath upon the tombstone of her loved one. – Ophelia2, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12453561

Blessings

This morning, early for a plane bound northward,
I saw a flock of sparrows lost indoors
who landed at arm's length, then at a hair's breadth
above me soared.

And when I flew just lower than the angels,
so far and farther on my thinking sped,
I saw things clearly that 'til then were tangled
and wove their threads.

Alighting, I walked out into the forest
where fallen leaves red-carpeted the ground
like silk or cloth-of-gold laid out before me,
or dreams unbound.

How can it be that you are mindful of me,
as if your care were all for my delight?
How can it be, O God, that you so loved me
that there was light?

But so it is: I wander in your garden
and find at every step you've laid a feast.
O Lord, I did not know that I was starving
'til you said, “Eat.”

I take and eat, and you fill every morsel.
I drink the wine, and you run in my veins.
When still I thirst, this spirit still you pour so
in autumn rains.

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Roadway to Lindsey Lake in David Crockett State Park, located a half mile west of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. By Christopher Hollis – Own work. The image appears on my my website., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5509905

Living Waters

From spring to river streams will go,
and rivers to the sea,
and when the living waters flow,
Lord, let them rise in me.

For I have thirsted these long days
while fountains run no more,
and now bone-dry I wait for pain—
Somewhere your waters pour.

Like sentinels await the dawn,
I wait for clouded skies,
for rivers rolling ever on,
for fallen waves to rise,

for creeks to laugh until they weep,
for cataracts to shout.
I know that deep calls out to deep
while I sit here in drought.

But you, who closed in doors the sea,
set hills not to be moved,
if you have closed these doors in me,
Lord, let me call it good.

Is this the fasting that you wish?
Not to my name but yours 
be all the glory, even if
the waters never pour.

Niagara Falls, from the American Side (Frederic Edwin Church, 1867) – qQE5jAFm16XHjQ at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21865696

Psalm 139: Too Great For Me

Based on Psalm 139:

You saw me in the darkness
within my mother's womb;
in every hope and heartache
I have been known to you.
I flee you and I fight you;
I turn from you in shame,
but I cannot deny you,
and still you call my name.

In rising and in sinking,
in falling, there to lie,
all that I long have hidden
is here before your eye.
My secrets and my shadows
to you are bright as day,
and all I long to ask you,
you know before I say.

When I would shrink in terror
there's courage that you give,
who know me in my failure—
You know, and you forgive.
And still you call, O Father;
beside me still you stand.
Too great for me, this knowledge,
that I am in your hand.

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Coro alto, Sé de Braga Portugal. Photo By Joseolgon – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72225140