Love the Lord Your God

The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
‘He is One and there is no other than he.’
And ‘to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself’
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
—Mark 12:28b-34

Love the Lord your God o'er all things;
love your neighbor as yourself:
More than holocausts and off'rings
this the law and prophets tell.
Not by ritual's right performance,
not by sweat and sacrifice,
but by love the door is opened
to the kingdom of the Christ.

East and west will come to dine there;
north and south will meet within.
Puzzled by the ones we find there,
we shall come still marred by sin.
Yet the Lord is rich in mercy:
When he's knelt to wash our feet,
he will bid us—hungry, thirsty—
all as one to sit and eat.

We are not far from the kingdom—
Why, then, should we wait the day?
Find the neighbors now and feed them;
straighten every crooked way.
We have heard the law and prophets;
we have heard the words of Christ:
Let this love become our off'ring.
Love shall be our sacrifice.

Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet By Anonymous 17^th century Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over charcoal? on cream paper- This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60853459

Axes

Will you, O God, look on my days with favor
and bless the feeble faithfulness you see
with mercy for the thousandth generation,
as graces from my forebears came to me?

Will you behold my striving with your kindness
and witness all my efforts from above?
The consequences of my self-made blindness
will you withhold from those I dearly love?

Or will you let the axes I have sharpened,
that I let fly, fall earthward as they will?
I fear them not, O Lord: My heart is hardened,
but how can I not fear that they may kill?

But if you will, reach out your heand from heaven
and turn all my destructive ways aside.
What I have loosed, bind into your indenture;
where I have prisoned, throw the portals wide!

Yet you will not, until the trump has sounded,
turn anyone aside from his own sense.
Instead you stand, unweaponed love unbounded,
and let the axes fall upon yourself.

Lord, I would be a blessing to my children,
as I am blessed by those who came before.
Then let me bear with patience all that kills me
and stand beside you here forevermore.

~ “He who does not keep peace shall lose his hand.” By Photo: Andreas Praefcke – Own work own photograph, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=169895

Mantle

To those who stand on corners
or walk the highways out,
to those who sleep in doorways,
reach out your mantle now
and drape it as a shelter
across the unkind earth,
a tent of finest velvet
for those who sleep on dirt.

Reach out to them, O Mary
apparelled in the sun,
the hounded and the harried,
and hide them from the guns.
See those in need of rescue
and spread for them your cloak
to be a sky-blue refuge
that screens them from the foe.

O Mother, now behold them,
the weary and the poor,
and in your arms enfold them 
where once you held the Lord,
to shield them from the Herods—
O, bear them safe away
beyond the reach of terror
to live another day.

The Ravensburger Schutzmantelmadonna, c. 1480, attributed to Michel Erhart, painted limewood, Bode Museum, Berlin. Attributed to Michel Erhart – Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2293730

More Than Prophets

At that time, John said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.”
—Mark 9:38-43

Would that all God's own were prophets
burning with the Spirit's flame,
every son and every daughter
given courage to proclaim!
Yet a greater gift is offered,
first and last and all may claim:
Offering a cup of water
to the thirsty, in Christ's name.

All the good things we have treasured
we are given from God's hand;
all the joys of rest and pleasure,
all the gifts of sun and land.
None, though, can we hold forever,
having but to give again.
Breaking heaven's bread together:
We are more than prophets then.

We are mortal; we are sinful,
yet such gifts we have received,
how can we be else than gen'rous
with God's generosity?
Word of God, come dwell within us;
form and shape all we shall be.
Let the love that you have giv'n us
echo in our every deed.

Bernardo Strozzi – An act of mercy, giving drink to the thirsty- http://emuseum.ringling.org/emuseum/objects/18885/an-act-of-mercy-giving-drink-to-the-thirsty?ctx=554eb923-d6df-4234-82e9-e439b2d967fe&idx=1, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66957640

Love

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
—1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Give me love's patience, Lord my God,
when mine is wearing thin,
and let it whisper in my heart 
that I have been forgiv'n,
and then love's kindness I will learn
and love's humility
when I have known you will not turn
your love away from me.

Give me the love that hopes all things
when fear says hope is gone,
that knows the Spirit spreads bright wings
o'er every coming dawn,
that bears all things and still believes
that we can be made new,
that can endure the world of griefs
and still rejoice in you.

Beyond all I desire or need,
far, far above all else,
this greatest mercy grant to me:
Give me your very self.
You are the source of all my hope;
you are the end thereof.
All other things are but to know
that you, O God, are love.

Christ Child in the Sacred Heart, Between 1475 and 1480, By Anonymous – https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/art-object-page.3738.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62473824