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

Bloom

Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,
they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings:
The grain, the wine, and the oil,
flocks of sheep and cattle;
They themselves shall be like watered gardens,
never again neglected.
—Jeremiah 31:12

We have had the nights of weeping
and the prophecies of doom,
had the days of wide-eyed sleeping,
walking through a drifting gloom.
Yet the endless springs are seeping
into furrows, into tombs:
We shall blossom in his keeping
like a garden in full bloom.

Some have plowed and others planted—
he has worked our waiting earth;
sunk his hands into the land here,
seed, himself, in death and birth;
and the mercy he has granted 
feeds us like a secret source.
He has tilled and we shall answer
with abundance springing forth.

Oh, but now the fields are barren,
bleaching gray beneath the sun,
as we dread to hear the sirens—
waiting ended, war begun.
Still the gardener is preparing
for the harvest yet to come:
Even now the seeds are stirring;
even now his mercies run.

A la Nasir al-Mulk Mosque o Mesquita Rosa, By Joan Simon from Barcelona, España – A la Nasir al-Mulk Mosque o Mesquita Rosa, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48223889

Mansions

In the valley of the shadow
we have learned to make our homes,
building with the wood we have here
on the ashes of what's gone.
We have trembled with its passions;
we have goosestepped to its drums:
How will we inhabit mansions
when the peaceful kingdom comes?

Oh, but you have set a table
where the foe looks on the foe,
where the air still rings with anger
and the ground is filled with bones.
There you take the bread of anguish,
sorrow's wine that overflows,
and you turn it into manna,
and you make this vale your home.

Lord, we know thw day is coming
when the earth and sky will blaze,
when the armies stop their drumming
and our grief at last will fade.
With this manna, sweet as honey,
teach us how to live that day;
breaking bread, we hold your promise:
Death will not steal all away.

Bread with crust crack (half left at the top) By Rainer Zenz – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=597239

Graft

We tore creation from your hands
and turned your gift to serve our ends.
The old and withered stump still stands—
You graft it to your self again.

Peel back the layers of your bark,
and carve into the heart's deep wood
to make the sickly shoot a part
of all your offer up to God.

And reaching up to heaven now,
draw all the world up from that root
until your mercy blossoms out
and what was rotten bears good fruit.

But when will growing days be done?
The harvest feast is so far off!
Grow on, O Christ, 'til kingdom come
that all the world may reap your love.

Into the Garden

Come, O Lord, into the garden
where we tasted good and ill;
come restore the heart we hardened,
wash away the blood we spilled.
When you've sunk beneath our burdens,
drunk the cup that mercy filled,
take us through the tearing curtain
to a place that's holier still.

Lead us onward from our Eden—
our beginning, not our end—
out beyond the bounds of healing,
through the wounds we seek to mend.
Past repairing to redeeming,
more than we can comprehend,
where the angels host are singing
songs we'll finally understand.

From the hell that you have harrowed,
from the weeping-watered tomb,
on the roadway straight and narrow,
through the desert now in bloom,
lead us onward through all sorrows,
past the joy we thought we knew,
to the day beyond tomorrows—
Make us there with all things new.

Expulsion from Paradise, painting by James Tissot (c. 1896–1902) By James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836 – 1902) (French)Google Art Projectでのアーティストの詳細 – igGZ-wF6_0XnlQ at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22493007

Fig Leaves

Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized that they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.
Genesis 3: 1-8

Also inspired by this reflection: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=114492308223659&set=a.112923281713895

What we covered up in fig leaves
you have plumbed in all its depth,
came as Adam to forgive Eve,
plunged into our dirt and death.
And you peel away the covers
as you tear the veil in two.
So you show us to the Father,
though we've hidden from his view.

Naked came we here a-borning;
naked only will we go.
Blessed be, at night and morning,
all the workings of the Lord!
Youa re working our salvation
in our termbling and our fear.
We're your working's incarnation,
and your own has brought us here.

Lay your hands upon us, healer;
spit into our crumbling dust.
Mudmaker, anoint and seal us
by the dirt you share with us.
Sweet the fruit that we had stolen;
sweeter still your flesh and blood.
Ephphatha! The tomb is opened!
We are as you made us: good.

A fig leaf cast in plaster used to cover the genitals of a copy of a statue of David in the Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum. By VAwebteam at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26076667

Before the Heavens

Before the heavens or the earth,
before a single star,
before th'unveiling universe,
from age to age, you are.

And when the stars have all gone out,
dissolved in entropy,
the sun has gone forever down,
beyond our end, you'll be.

The wisdom spoken at the first
that let there be some light,
you played in all the newborn earth
and found in it delight.

You helped the maker shape the clay
before God breathed in us,
and then you taught us words to say,
God's breath out of our dust.

Then come again, O Word Unfurled
upon creation's scroll,
delighting in the weary world:
Come now, and make us whole.

For we were always crumbling dust,
upheld but by your work.
Come back and breathe once more in us.
Speak us again, O Word.

NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, is about 55,000 light-years in diameter and approximately 60 million light-years from Earth. By The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)NASA Headquarters – Greatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) – http://nix.larc.nasa.gov/info;jsessionid=1sl2so6lc9mab?id=GPN-2000-000933&orgid=12http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-1999-25-a-full_tif.tif, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127019

Then

An angel showed me the river of life-giving water,
sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God
and of the Lamb down the middle of the street,
On either side of the river grew the tree of life
that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month;
the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations.
Nothing accursed will be found anymore.
The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it,
and his servants will worship him.
They will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun,
for the Lord God shall give them light,
and they shall reign forever and ever.
Revelation 22:1-7

Then all the broken promises
and all the severed ties
will be restored with all that is,
where nothing ever dies.

And all that should be but is not
shall be forevermore,
and all that was and then was lost
to us us shall be restored.

The tree of life shall grow again
in orchards, rows on rows,
and Eden's gate be opened then
to everything that grows.

The flaming sword shall plow the ground
to open every grave,
and nothing cursed shall then be found
when all has been remade.

The bodies wedded to decay
shall taste the medicine
that was in Eden locked away,
and they shall live again.

Then all the broken will be healed,
the severed mended then,
and death to endless life shall yield—
but when, my God?  But when?

Painting of life tree in interoer of Shaki Khan palace, Azerbaijan NAtional Art Museum, Usta Gambar Garabagi By Urek Meniashvili – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26760866

The Days Are Coming: Amos 9

On that day I will raise up the fallen hut of David; I will wall up its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all nations claimed in my name—oracle of the LORD, the one who does this. Yes, days are coming—oracle of the LORD— When the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps and the vintager, the sower of the seed; The mountains shall drip with the juice of grapes, and all the hills shall run with it. I will restore my people Israel, they shall rebuild and inhabit their ruined cities, Plant vineyards and drink the wine, set out gardens and eat the fruits. I will plant them upon their own ground; never again shall they be plucked From the land I have given them—the LORD, your God, has spoken.
Amos 9:11-15

The days are coming, says the Lord,
when I shall bend my righteous sword
to plow the wracked and ruined earth
and plant the seeds of her rebirth.

The vines upon my mount restore—
the very hills with wine shall pour!
The fields I clothe in golden wheat;
my own shall harvest it and eat.

While yet they glean, I plow again;
they gather yet again the grain,
and hardly shall they pluck the fruit,
new growth comes surging from the root.

When my own hands reset the stone,
enclose the fields where thorns have grown,
so shall I raise as 'twas of old
the shade and shelter of the fold.

And stone on stone a palace raise
for David as in former days.
Within its walls, a kingdom sow
where all my own in peace shall grow.

The cities that I gave to fire
from ash I raise now even higher.
To home and heritage restored
I bring my people, says the Lord.