11/20/06 - 11:36:28 am
Categories:
PoetryWe read a pericope in Matthew today for morning devotions - the story where Jesus talks to the rich man and requests the sale of possessions. I have many reflections on this passage, which at some point I will share, but for now I just wrote a poem about it. I think this is very fitting regarding the recent elections and the impending holiday where everybody recognizes their blessings.
He Asks
He asks
He asks for you to give
All that you have accomplished
All that you treasure so dear
Life and strife
Dime and time
You are not to spare an ounce
Give up the politics we seek for shelter
Forgo the family tree
Abandon it all in the name of the Lord
Reckless, imprudent, careless
All to usher the Kingdom of God
The Kingdom is foretold
Where the believer abandons all
In order to spare the needy
Where the faithful, who need not worry
Those who can retire from anxious living
Depart with luxury or even sustainability
On behalf of those who live in fear
Oppression and exploitation
It is we Christians
Who should sell what we have
And take up the fields under the burden
Be yolked in kind to plow the field
As beasts a pair
Two faithful cows tilling the soil
Replacing the toiled slave
Sacrificing our own well being
As He has done in our stead
Free to live as the bird
Who is feathered and fed by the Lord
We can expend our daily feeding
In full confidence
We can advance our only meal
To those who do not have one
So that they may cease worry
And we can embrace our death
What have the Christians to dread
We have been commanded to not do so
Why can’t it be us
Who lays down our bodies for labor
And allows our stomachs to wither
Gifting to those who do not know Him
Who do not know peace
With the opportunity at life
He invites you to hand over
All that you have and will receive
To usher in the Kingdom now
So that others may believe
Impart your blessings upon others
Steal their suffering away
Like a lamb to the slaughter
Take on your cross today
The utopian life
Is not for being happy
But for the faithful to take action
And embrace their lowly inheritance
That oppression is broken
Loses authority
Because all believers
Cuddle it to their breast
Where the burdened enjoy exertion
As charity and service to creation
All He does is ask
And all he asks is all
And what we do to join the Kingdom
Give, exert, take on extinction
Reply unto his call
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