Threads

When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility
and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,
then the word that is written shall come about:
            Death is swallowed up in victory.
                        Where, O death, is your victory?
                        Where, O death, is your sting?
—I Corinthians 15:54-58

I will wear out like a garment,
growing tattered, getting torn.
Though, my God, you spun and carded,
wove my threads ere I was born,
yet your work shall come unravelled,
picked apart by careless hands,
stained by everywhere I've travelled
as I seek the promised land.

Take and wash me, smudged and spotted,
in your everflowing stream.
When you draw me from the water,
then at last I will be clean.
But you will not patch these tatters
when this cloak is all worn through,
piecing fullness where I'm ragged—
You will weave my threads anew.

I am meager; I am mortal,
quickly worn out in the strife.
Clothe me then in what's immortal,
and I'll enter into life.
Death is swallowed up in vict'ry,
in the shroud of Christ the Son.
I am sewn into your myst'ry,
in the seamless life you've spun.

Weaver, Nürnberg, c. 1425 By Anonymous – Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung, Band 1. Nürnberg 1426–1549. Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg, Amb. 317.2°, via http://www.nuernberger-hausbuecher.de/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13129819

Christ Our Light Is Dawning

How beautiful upon the mountains
       are the feet of him who brings glad tidings,
   announcing peace, bearing good news,
       announcing salvation, and saying to Zion,
       “Your God is King!”
Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry,
       together they shout for joy,
   for they see directly, before their eyes,
       the LORD restoring Zion.
   Break out together in song,
       O ruins of Jerusalem!
   For the LORD comforts his people,
       he redeems Jerusalem.
   The LORD has bared his holy arm
       in the sight of all the nations;
   all the ends of the earth will behold
       the salvation of our God.
—Isaiah 52:7-10

How beautiful the footsteps
and steady-beating heart 
that bring to us a good word
and say, “Here is your God!”

Now see what he is doing,
that never yet was seen.
Break into song, you ruined,
for you have been redeemed!

Our sentinels have told it—
O, hearken to their cry!—
and we, too, shall behold it,
the dawn that greets our eyes.

The empty places in us
where shadows made their home,
shine out as morning fills us,
for lo! Our light has come!

For all the days we hungered,
new feasts will fill our lack.
All that was taken from us
will someday be led back.

Stand up and greet the morning,
the promise coming true.
For Christ our light is dawning
and mercy is made new!

Aci Castello Sicily Italy – Creative Commons by gnuckx By gnuckx, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53170013

Morning Star

Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
—2 Peter 1:19

It sits just below the horizon,
steadfast as we're losing the light;
what changes the world at its rising
now waits for the coming of night.

And we who have waited in darkness
and watched as the light fades away,
we see even now the first stars out
with us keeping vigil for day.

As midnight draws nearer and nearer
the shadows grow deeper than deep,
but in them we see all the clearer
the longing that draws us from sleep

to wait with a hushed expectation
that knows every shadow must pass
the gleam of the world's restoration,
the light breaking on us at last.

And all who have waited to see it
cry out with the strength it imparts,
“Shine out, holy light, from your zenith!
O morning star, rise in our hearts!”

Venus is always brighter than the brightest stars outside the Solar System, as can be seen here over the Pacific Ocean, Photo By Brocken Inaglory – File:Venus with reflection.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5223759

I Cannot Keep Awake

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.”
—Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

My eyes will not stay open;
I cannot keep awake,
but trust what you have spoken
that swiftly comes the day

when you will come restoring,
come bringing exiles home.
I may not be here for it,
but I wait, even so.

The memories we carry,
old sorrows we still weep
like seeds the winter buried,
not dead but fast asleep,

with Jesse's stump forgotten
yet watered by the dew—
all that we lost shall blossom,
becoming something new.

The fruit we stole in Eden
and Cain's rejected sheaves,
their shoots will grow like weeds then
into your mercy's feast.

And if I cannot see it,
if I am buried deep,
yet you will come, Redeemer,
to wake me from my sleep.

Detail of Jesse from the Stained Glass window of All Saints Church, Hove, Sussex. England, Photo By Malcolmlow, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64575403

Fig Tree

Learn a lesson from the fig tree.
When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves,
you know that summer is near.
In the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that he is near, at the gates.
Amen, I say to you,
this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.
–Mark 13:24-32

There will be days of trial and tribulation:
The sun will hide; the moon will shine no more.
The princes and the pow'rs will all be shaken,
and they will see the coming of the Lord.

Come, learn to read the wonders of the heavens,
the times and seasons ticking through the year.
For those with eyes to see, they are a message:
The days roll on, and Christ is drawing near.

Oh, let it be the lesson of the fig tree,
that summer comes and all the earth turns ripe,
the bud and blossom growing out of myst'ry,
the slow beginning of the fruit of life.

We wait the rising of the sun of justice;
the bride keeps vigil 'til she sees her groom.
With hope and fear we wait the coming judgment
to see the deserts bursting into bloom.

O, give us courage, Lord, to stand before you,
and strengthen us to make a level way
where all may journey safely to adore you,
and give us patience while we wait for day.

Trew, C.J., Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini, in hortis curiosorum nutrit, vol. 8: t. 73 (1771) [G.D. Ehret] – http://plantillustrations.org/illustration.php?id_illustration=58571&language=English, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22318968

Exiled Hearts

Thus says the LORD:
   Shout with joy for Jacob,
       exult at the head of the nations;
       proclaim your praise and say:
   The LORD has delivered his people,
       the remnant of Israel.
   Behold, I will bring them back
       from the land of the north;
   I will gather them from the ends of the world,
       with the blind and the lame in their midst,
   the mothers and those with child;
       they shall return as an immense throng.
   They departed in tears,
       but I will console them and guide them;
   I will lead them to brooks of water,
       on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
   For I am a father to Israel,
       Ephraim is my first-born.
—Jeremiah 31:7-9

The Lord will come, and it will not be long:
He comes at last to lead the exiles home—
See how they follow him, a joyous throng
come singing on a smooth and level road.

He leads them through the parting of the seas:
The limping ones, the old, the deaf, the blind,
the fearful hearts come after him with ease—
All those we thought we had to leave behind.

For we had fallen to the ways of strength,
as captives to the powers we desired.
How could the feeble walk the desert's length?
How would the weak do then what was required?

We did not fathom how the love divine
would shrink himself to fit our helplessness;
we did not understand our God's design
to show his glory in our weaknesses.

But so it was, and it shall be again:
Though we have wandered, he will bring us back.
We were cast out, but he will lead us in
and fill up with himself all that we lack.

Then bring to him your weak and foolish heart;
fear not to show what brings you to your knees
and say to his, “My child, what do you want?”
“O Son of David, Lord, I want to see!”

Healing of the blind man of Jericho By Unknown author – Codex Egberti, Fol 31, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8096753