Allwheres

It is the LORD who goes before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you. So do not fear or be dismayed.
Deuteronomy 31:8

Through all the days that lie ahead
and all the nights when dawn's unsure,
along the ways laid for your steps,
remember that he walks with you.

Though cliffs rise up on every side
and mountains tumble to the sea,
yet go, for still your guard and guide
is with you, when all others flee.

With every step that you may take,
his heavens on their axis spin;
encircling you, asleep, awake,
without beginning, without end.

Awake, asleep, astray, at home:
it is his road before your feet,
and you will not step out alone.
At every turn, it's him you meet.

So go, and even when you fear,
you still are somewhere in his palm,
and every step, away or near,
allwheres you go, to him you come.

A paved Roman road in Pompeii By Paul Vlaar – http://www.neep.net/photo/italy/show.php?3390, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=173413

Tears

When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for her and said to her,
“Do not weep.”
He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
at this the bearers halted,
and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”
The dead man sat up and began to speak,
and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Luke 7:11-17

You beheld the widow weeping—
Did you know then what would come:
at the cross her station keeping, 
Mary with belovèd John?
You stepped in and raised the sleeping,
gave the widow back her son.

Knowing how Eve wept for Abel,
Rachel for her children wept,
knowing Martha—faith unshaken—
mourned when you delayed your steps,
did you guess what Mary's fate held,
keeping vigil at your death?

Eden tore us all asunder;
life by dying was undone.
Bread of life, you knew our hunger:
Make our separation one.
Give us back to one another,
death by dying overcome.

Tears have been our bread since Eden,
since the day we took and ate.
We have had our fill of feasting,
sated since the days of Cain.
You who joined us in our weeping, 
let it be the bread you break.

Take these tears and make them hallowed;
let our weeping make us one.
Let them, then, give way to dancing;
let rejoicing come with dawn.
Let the widow's prayers be answered:
Give her back her only son.

Resurrection of the son By Wilhelm Kotarbiński – cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23801336

Scars

O God, look down from heav'n and see:
Alone, you pierce the veil
and know the wounds that do not bleed,
the grief of hopes that fail.

So bend your ear to heart-rent cries
gone hoarse with all the years,
too soft to pierce the distant skies:
Hear us and count our tears.

What if these wounds should never heal,
these wrongs be not undone?
Before you throne then shall we kneel
as torn as your own son?

For surely he has borne our pain
as he has died our death,
and still the marks on him are seen,
yet peace is in his breath.

Shall heaven be a wedding feast
where all the broken come,
called from the highways to their seats
around a broken groom?

He drew his brother to the wound
and bid him touch the heart.
See, Father, we are wounded, too:
Let Christ dwell in our scars.

“The incredulity of Thomas” from an English manuscript, c. 1504 By Unknown author – This image is available from the National Library of WalesYou can view this image in its original context on the NLW Catalogue, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44920993

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