Seven Times

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-35

How often, Lord, should we forgive?
Is seven times enough?
As often as we are forgiv'n 
by your unfailing love,
as often as you send our crimes
as far as east from west?
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

For when you came to seek and save,
you fell beneath our doom,
but you bring life out from the grave
and mercy from the tomb.
Yet shall you look upon out crimes
and still forgive us then?
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

And all that bears us down to death
from Eden to the tomb
shall fall and sink down farther yet
while we rise up with you.
Our hearts, unbound from all their crimes,
lift up a great amen!
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

This depiction by Jan van Hemessen (c. 1556) shows the moment when the king scolds the servant. By Jan Sanders van Hemessen – http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1959-sl-1.108/1959_1.108.JPG?from=index;lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=1;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=ic_all;q1=hemessen, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54308916

Dare

The clouds hang darkly overhead,
but rain is more than I can hope.
Long days the gaping ground has pled,
but heaven's only word is “no.”

And so this aching thirst remains;
dry tinder dreads the spark of hope,
for who will quench the rav'ning flames,
and what is left when ash has flown?

Unless there are such things as seas
and rivers ever onward run,
but deserts dare not oceans dream
when they must meet the morning sun.

Until some spark should split the sky,
'til mercy plummets from the clouds
and thund'ring angels “Holy!” cry
and heaven pours its graces out.

Let me remember this, O God:
That mercy always pours again
upon my troubled, tinder heart;
that I may dare to dream of rain.

Raindrops falling on water Here comes rain again By Juni from Kyoto, Japan – Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=356231

To Do the Work

To do the work you've given me to do,
to carry what you've given me to bear,
and if you let me, then to see it through,
or lay it down and give it to your care.

To love whom you have given me to love,
to feed the hunger you give me to feed,
and trust that you will lay the good I've done
upon the table where we all will eat.

To follow when I cannot see the way,
to trust that in the dark you guide my steps.
To hope you work for good in my mistakes.
to sing your name with every single breath.

O Father, lay the road before my feet,
the valleys and the mountains I will climb,
for I will stay the course you set for me
and seek you in the footsteps of my life.

U.S. Route 95 in Churchill County, Nevada, is an example of a typical two-lane, bi-directional road found throughout the rural areas of the United States that are designed for light traffic. By Famartin – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39452786

Set Loose

“Amen, I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, amen, I say to you,
if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:15-20

What we set loose on earth is loosed in heaven,
and what we bind is bound with heaven's chains.
What we forgive indeed has been forgiven,
and what we punish perishes in flames.

Where two or three are gathered, you are present,
as real as once in Bethlehem new-born.
We bathe your feet with tears in our forgiveness,
or crown you with our own resentment's thorns.

O Christ, you came to loose the floods of mercy,
to bind the tempter far from those he'd harm.
Give us to drink that flood, for we are thirsty,
and gether us in heaven's open arms.

Set free all those you call sisters and brothers,
and bind the sins that we so often choose.
Let it be mercy we set loose for others,
and let us bind ourselves ever to you.

Brooklyn Museum – Two or Three Gathered in my Name (Deux ou trois personnes assemblées en mon nom) – James Tissot – Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2007, 00.159.43_PS2.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10957342

Weighed and Wanting

I've been walking for a lifetime
up the steep and narrow track.
I was going in a straight line
just to find I'd circled back.
What I didn't want will haunt me;
what I wanted, I have failed.
When I'm weighed and I'm found wanting,
put your finger on the scales.

I held on to some forever
while the days slipped through my hands,
thought I'd built my house on bedrock
just to find that it was sand.
Now I'm starting from the bottom
of a cliff I thought I'd scaled.
Christ, you find me weighed and wanting:
Put your finger on the scales.

I've been buying life on credit;
I've been stealing borrowed time.
Teach me to forgive my debtors,
'cause I can't pay back a dime.
Now my only hope is counting
on a love that goes to hell.
Lord, I cry out weighed and wanting:
Put your finger on the scales.

The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead depicts a scene in which a scribe’s heart is weighed against the feather of truth. By Hunefer – http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/p/page_from_the_book_of_the_dead.aspx, https://www.webcitation.org/63ZdUemZU, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79229218

When

When my eyes are dim with weeping
and my heart is drowned in tears
for the record I am keeping
of the locust-eaten years,
when I wonder if you're sleeping
while I'm crying out my fears,
let your kindly light coem creeping
and your mercy find me here.

When I can't hear any answers
to the questions that I pray,
when I can't see any pattern
to the chaos of my days,
give me ears to hear the laughter
of your living spring at play;
give me eyes to see the manna
you have scattered in my way.

Though the dreams that I have wanted
may be always out of reach
and the heart I try to soften
may be granite underneath,
though the road that we are walking
leads us straight to Calvary,
let me trust that it runs onward
and that you still walk with me.

Hortus sanitatis, Mainz 1491. Woodcut showing manna By Unknown author – Hortus Sanitatis. Mainz, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82935525

Stone By Stone

More from the Worship for Workers retreat at Laity Lodge:

The road is long and weary;
the work is never done,
but lay each brick you carry
upon the cornerstone
and God will build the city
where all will live in hope
from everything you're bringing,
and build it stone by stone.

So bring him all you're making,
your burdens and your bread,
and all that life is breaking
again and yet again.
Lay all on his foundation
and lean upon his strength,
for it will not be shaken,
the kingdom without end.

The work is neverending,
but still the city grows,
and every weight you carry
helps build another course.
For God will make the city
upon his own great love
And though you bring but little,
yet it will be enough.

Cornerstone at St. Vincent De Paul Roman Catholic Church, New Orleans, Louisiana (1866) By I, Infrogmation, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2230709

Duped

Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”
Matthew 16:21-27

Take up your cross, the savior says.
Beneath his own, he stooped,
and we who follow in his steps
must let ourselves be duped.

For it is madness, is it not,
to be so crucified?
A folly and a stumbling block,
yet we'll be lifted high.

We fight the weight that comes to us
and kick against the trace,
but soon or late we'll each be crushed,
and we will call it grace.

For there in sorrow and in grief
Christ lays his wounded head
on purpose to receive the thief
and walk among the dead.

The cross that is our pain and death
he came intent to share,
accepting from his first-drawn breath
the weight he was to bear.

His madness joins us on the cross;
his folly shares our fate,
so he could hold us in his arms
through all we can't escape.

Jeremiah By Ephraim Moses Lilien – E. M. Lilien, eine künstlerische Entwickelung um die Jahrhundertwende, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49628661

Still Here

As you go forth, there will be a voice that says,
work hard enough, and you'll turn these stones to bread.
But you've choked down a lifetime full of stones,
and it's a taste you've already known too long.

As you go out, there will be a voice that calls
that if you jump, the angels'll break your fall.
But you know there's nowhere left to go but down
'cause you're there scraping manna from the ground.

As you go on, there will be a voice that screams,
if you just serve me, then I'll give you all your dreams.
But there's no dream when you're too worn out to sleep,
and thirsty for a river running deep.

As you go forth, there is one who walks with you,
who's walked each step of what you're going through,
and it's enough for him that you survive.
He loves you now, who came to give you life.

So carry on, though the desert lies ahead,
where it takes your all just to find your daily bread.
God knows your need, your heartache, and your fear.
It hurts like hell, but it's good that you're still here.

Christ in the Wilderness by Ivan Kramskoy, 1872 – Google Cultural Center, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38344996

Who Do We Say You Are?

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and
he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:13-20

From east and west, O Lord, we come,
from all points near and far
to answer this in every tongue:
Who do we say you are?

A prophet like all those before
touched with a holy flame?
You prophesy and yet are more
than any prophet's claim.

A king to reign o'er every land,
a sword in hand you take?
You are the king, yet in your hand
is bread you bless and break.

A great high priest to stnd for us
before the face of God?
Both priest and victim, fire and blood,
and true God from true God.

You are the Christ, God's living Son;
there is no other word.
You are God's own beloved one,
God's love itself, our Lord.

Then we will go from east to west
announcing who you are:
God's love for every one of us,
light shining in the dark.

Jesus Christ – detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul By Edal Anton Lefterov – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15165689