Rhyming is saying the same thing backwards. Realms of tattered words fill lots of wheelbarrows. Reading rhymes is fun until you think about it. Nonsense is saying the opposite of what you usually would say, for each word in the sentence. Rhymes replace meaning sometimes. Saying what you might do is always a predicate to what you have done, at least when the two are the same thing. I’ve always thought that what I might do far outweighs what I will do, but is not nearly as true.
Tag: truth
A Prayer for the World
I closed my eyes to the world,
For I could not bear another
Moment of its peril,
Persecution and sword.
All the fighting was too much
To take in each day,
The cruelty and carnage,
The swearing and insulting,
Turning heads to wrongs abounding.
So, my hope was hanging
In a precious balance.
Whether I could go on,
Was in doubt, for sure.
I decided to appeal
To my higher power,
The merciful God of Spirit,
Who had rescued my life from ruin.
Somehow, there must be possibility
For my present earth to reconcile
All this shambles of civilization,
A carcass of the creation
That existed so many years ago.
I prayed a solemn petition,
Asking Jesus for His grace,
A gentle dose of mercy
For this time and place.
And so I placed my trust
In the heaven above,
Shedding no more tears for the future.
I know it is in God’s hands,
And I believe that is enough.
Up
I was going to say
Something wonderful,
But I stopped short of wonder,
And went with terrible, instead.
It seemed more appropriate,
And I was content.
I thought I might compliment
All the impressive things
Being done in the world,
But before I got very far,
I contemplated the war machine,
And colonization, and slavery,
So I let it be, and moved on.
So many good people doing good things,
It makes me want to have faith,
But instead I think about
Corruption, shootings and partisanship,
And I want to throw up.
Life
Silence.
Tick, tick, tick, tick…
Ouch! That hurts!
Tick, tick, tick, tick…
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Hello?
Silence.
Hello? Is there anybody there?
Silence.
Tick, tick, tick, tick…
Ring! Ring! Ring!
I don’t care! I just don’t care, anymore.
Silence.
Brothers
I never thought we’d come to this place—
You and me on opposing sides, in a race
Against time, against each other, against freedom.
Never thought I’d be fighting a brother in the kingdom.
Sometimes, I get confused about all the issues.
Hold it now, I need a box of tissues.
Life has taught me to be true to those
Close to me, who’d give me the clothes off their back.
Maybe if we try to make this moment count,
Dig in, and give it all we’ve got.
Can you see the light coming at you now?
Don’t leave me here to just fester and rot!
You mean a lot to me, I wish you could
Accept that simple truth as a fact.
Let’s do the right thing, like eating your favorite food.
It feels good, even to be caught in the act.
Everything we learned yesterday doesn’t come
To mean a thing without love.
Every heart we’ve broke just feels like some
Kind of putting our head in a stove.
But you and me, we’ve been around the block.
We know the rules, and the pain, there’s no going back.
It’s not too late to correct yourself.
Just put those lies on the back shelf.
Hear me say, it’s not the same thing
As going on the first date.
Going steady makes me irate.
Take off like a big spring
That’s all I got, so take it or leave it!
Communion
Sacrifice justice mercy love tribal watch out for
Those who are like you but even more for those
Who are different pluralism diversity freedom
Encouragement communion fellowship blood
And body bread and wine do this as you will
Bible Stories, True or False?
Bible stories are an enigma. Some of them are so intimate, private and personal. Some of them are so extraordinary, hard to believe, supernatural. So many are so alien to life as we know it. And who could have originally accounted for each story? When John leapt in Elizabeth’s womb upon a visit from Jesus’ mother Mary, who recorded that story to be passed on for centuries? When Moses encountered the burning bush, when the Hebrews followed a pillar of fire and smoke, when a touch of Jesus’ robe healed a bleeding woman, who wrote down these things? Who told the story to others? So private, so personal. So hard to believe that they came to be part of a book that we read. I don’t think Jesus told these stories. Was it a disciple? An apostle? Who passed it on? Did leaders in the first churches started by Paul tell these stories in church? Before there was a written record from the Catholic Church? So many questions, so many unanswered doubts. The Bible stories are so foreign to life as we know it today. How could they have really happened? Isn’t it more likely that they were made up to enhance the power of the church over its followers? And the synagogue over its faithful people? Other religions have stories that we assume are just literature made up by followers of a religion to give power to their leaders. Why don’t Christians believe the same thing about their own religious books? Is it too terrifying to consider that these stories could be false, made up, simply literature to build up a myth?
The Uncertainty of Truth and a Leap of Faith
Knowing the truth is possible but being certain of the truth is not possible. Certainty is a luxury of the ignorant. There is an argument that can be made against the existence or presence or activity or feeling of about anything. Claiming certainty is possible only for those who ignore some or all of the facts. What is truth? Well, that depends on who you are, where you come from, how you were raised, etc. there is not one truth that is superior to all other truths. That’s ridiculous. The only thing certain about truth is that truth is not certain. It must be accepted by a leap of faith.
Can You Doubt It?
Pools of blood
Gathering beneath
The hanging body.
Breath goes out,
But doesn’t come back in.
Skin separated from the bones.
What is the truth?
They’ve washed their hands
Of any responsibility.
But can they wash away the blood?
Nightmares come
To remind the guilty.
Can you grit your teeth
And bare this torture?
Can you escape the horror?
This man was truly
From God.
Those who witnessed,
Cannot deny it.
Those who saw him later—
Walking, talking…
Breathing, eating—
Cannot shake the image
From their memory.
Restored but still wounded.
Put your finger
In my wrists and in my side.
He is alive!!!
Miracles: Yes or No
The central belief that all of Christianity hinges on, that of the resurrection from death of Jesus of Nazareth, is a slippery slope, at least. If one chooses to believe that miracle happened, it isn’t too far a stretch to believe in the feeding of the five thousand, or in the healing of the sight of the blind man, or the other miracles that Jesus was supposed to have performed in the Gospels. If you can believe in the resurrection, everything else is on the table.
And there is no shortage of miracles in the Old Testament either. The production of the stone tablets on the mountain after witnessing a burning bush that is not consumed by the fire, the plagues of Egypt before Pharaoh sets free the Israelites, the parting of the sea for the Israelites as they flee Egypt, the production of mammon in the desert to feed the Israelites, and so many more.
So if one believes in all the wonders of the Old Testament, is it such a stretch to believe in the resurrection? Not really. Or if one believes in the resurrection, why not believe in all the miracles of the Old Testament? It is a leap of faith on both counts, no matter how you look at it.
Can one be a Christian without believing in miracles? Well, if you don’t believe in the resurrection, it’s hard to claim that label. But if you do believe in the resurrection, you have no case against the miracles in the rest of the Bible. One can believe in Jesus’ moral teachings, and so be a follower of Jesus in a way, but some of the things Jesus is quoted saying, and the wonders he is recorded as performing, would have to be overlooked.
Stumbling along the sidewalk 