Pilgrim Table

For All Saints Day, on which the prayer after communion reads,
“As we adore you, O God, who alone are holy
and wonderful in all your Saints,
we implore your grace,
so that, coming to perfect holiness in the fullness of your love,
we may pass from this pilgrim table
to the banquet of our heavenly homeland.
Through Christ our Lord.”

You call us from the north, O Lord,
and call us from the south.
From east afar we heard your word;
from west we sought it out.

Through deserts you have led the way
and over ocean deeps;
the forests hold you not at bay
nor any mountain steeps.

And we have travelled by your road,
have followed day and night 
in search of our eternal home,
on pathways you make right.

At every step a fest you spread:
a table where we find
your heav'nly manna for our bread;
your living water, wine.

You give us strength to journey on
in plate and chalice laid,
a foretaste of the feast to come
in your unending day.

Then at this pilgrim table, Lord,
come fill us with your grace
to seek the banquet more and more
where we shall see your face.

Fractio panis (“the ceremonial breaking of the eucharistic bread for distribution” during the meal of Holy Communion) in the Greek chapel (Capella Greca) of the Catacombe di Priscilla in Rome. Fresco of a Christian Agape feast. 2nd – 4th century. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=566562

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

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

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.

More details

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

Seat of Grace

Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
—Hebrews 4:14-16

When you appear before us
and all has been made known,
shall we approach your glory
and kneel before your throne?
So now while you are hidden
we still seek out your face;
we know you welcome sinners
there at the seat of grace.

No kings sit at your right hand,
no princes at your left:
The throng who in your sight stand
were servants of the rest.
And you, O Lord, uphold them—
so we would be upheld.
Until we can behold you,
grant us your timely help!

To love you in our service,
and love our neighbor, too,
to know the gift of mercy—
and always to know you.
So we bring all our weakness,
our sorrow, and our sin
and seek our great high priest here:
O, bid us enter in!

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

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

How Hard It Is

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
“How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
“Then who can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said,
“For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God.”
—Mark 10:17-27

How hard it is to enter in God's kingdom:
Sell all you have and bid your world goodbye.
So camels thread the slim eye of the needle
before the rich can claim a place on high.
But heaven calls, and only this is needful:
to give your all and follow after Christ.

What is the price your savior now is asking?
You gold and gems, your lavish gifts displayed?
No, but your heart poured out in prayer and action:
This is the gift your offer day by day.
Not faith alone or keeping each commandment,
but love itself: This is the narrow way.

For gold will dim, and silver coins will tarnish.
All swords will rust except God's holy word—
a living edge that parts the joints and marrow
to lay us bare before the eye of God.
So whittled down, we pass with room to spare then:
The needle grows; the narrow gate is broad.

And all we've lost, and all we've gladly given
shall be restored in Spirit and in truth.
All we forgave as we have been forgiven—
that mercy shown our own hearts will renew,
will heal our eyes that we may share the vision
of God's great love, while Christ makes all things new.

About The Rich, O discontented mancan ever be rich. The golden calfnever grows into acow that gives milk. The devil comes to the wedding when•-;ople marry for money. God has never made gold enough tomake a selfish man rich. On Gods scales a poor mans best and« rich mans best balance each other. Some people will sell their souls verycheap for the prospect of quick payment. Success in this world often means fail-ure in the next. What do you suppose angels think ofthe man who is doing his best to die rich? We are not in a condition to enjoyriches until we can be happy withoutthem. They know in heaven how much relig-ion the rich have by the way they treatthe poor. It is seldom that a man ever gets to bewise enough to know what to do with alarge fortune- IBy Frank Beard – https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14597788930/Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/blastsfromramsho00unse/blastsfromramsho00unse#page/n19/mode/1up, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44080771

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.

More details

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

The Canyon

At midnight, stars reflected in the river,
'til one got up and shot across the sky.
Another angel falling out of heaven?
No: firefly.

The crickets filled the stillness with their chorus;
a riverbank of frogs is counterpoint
as night lays out its wonders all before us.
The dark anoints

'til pale cliffs catch the light of early morning
and conqu'ring dawn surmounts the hillside's pow'r.
A herald birdsong greets the day a-borning:
the bright'ning hour.

And then the river gleams back at the glory:
Deep calls to deep, and blue proclaims to blue,
and not a word is lost of all their story
who call to you.

Between the river and the light of heaven,
the canyon's arms encircle all the world.
An element of this, I feel it given
and praise you, Lord.

Sumidero Canyon, Mexico By Sgroey – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117035720