The living coming One-a poem

If I could walk beside the dead
And take their hand imparting You,
the Holy Thrice transcendent One.
But in what a minor world they roam,
seeking hope beneath, within, among
the still dead places
untouched by spring’s bright promise. Picture by Derek McHenry

“Jesus is dead”

If I could open eyes,
the eyes shut by some fairytale like witch,
who traded her poor bought candy for the chance
to eat the fat of lambs
and children.
If I could shine that light of You
until blindness opens to the risen Lord.

“He ain't coming back.”

If I could help him/her look down lonely
halls, highways and rough flights
until they catch the song that rises from the shadows.
Tears to be gathered in a bottle, laughter falling, broken
yet gathered back
to the one possessed and owned by God.
The coming One, the King of kings.

“If civilization or even humanity will survive the next few decades it will be up to some incredibly good fortune AND human beings making wise choices.”

It is His sovereignty that grips;
His love that reaches for the dead one;
His power that touches the tortured eyes
of those who now peer into darkness.
It is His promise that holds the world together
His promise that brings our spring.
His promise that prepares good works

This is a poem written by me with a little help from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and an unintentional (he didn't mean to help) Presbyterian pastor, John Shuck. See also Psalm 56:8, Malachi 3:17-18 and Eph 2:10.

Jesus, the coming King

If we listen and agree we shall be deceived, and if we follow we shall fall into hell. As we sat around the tables at our Presbytery meeting talking about what might be a center that the whole Presbytery could agree to, I could only think of our great divide. And in words placed on the Witherspoon Society’s site by their web master I know that the chasm is a spiritual one as wide as eternal death is from everlasting life. It can only be healed if God reaches out in redemption. Picture by Penny Juncker

The words I saw were written by John Shuck a Presbyterian (U.S.A.) pastor in Tennessee. The words are a part of an advent meditation that Doug King saw as “thoughtful” and so posted them on the Witherspoon site. The words:

“What might it mean for Jesus to return? The return of Jesus is a powerful symbol of finding rest, peace, justice, and balance in our personal lives and in our interconnectedness with earth. To sing, ‘come thou long expected Jesus’ is to sing with the expectation of fulfillment for balance and peace.”

The writer of those words, Shuck, goes on to suggest that the kind of return he is writing about will happen if we are willing to give birth, if we we are open to the creativity of “the universe.” Furthermore the kind of anticipation we are to have is “an anticipation” of “an expansion of our consciousness or awareness.”

I am writing about this because I do not understand the outlook of those who search for a central focus which ignores the very heart of the gospel, that is, that Jesus died for sinners. Why are some holding on to an expectation that our center as a denomination or a Presbytery will hold around the building of clothes closests or homeless shelters, while they fail to hold dear the Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of his personal coming.

It seems that for some, such new age theology, equates with the same theology that insists on the ordination of unrepentant homosexuals. And such an impersonal understanding of Jesus just might very well be the only proper way of connecting him to those who wish to allow sin free reign. With such meaning we can throw away the transforming power of Jesus. We can forget to look for him. Forget advent.

As Yeats wrote, the center does not hold. And surely “some rough beast” moves among our shadowed churches wishing to be born in place of the King of Kings.

The truth is the Lord Jesus Christ is returning. He was King, he is King and he will be King forever. We celebrate now the Incarnation, the birth of the eternal Son into our world. That is the Christmas story. But it is so much more. He is the God who lived with us and died for us. He is the God who rose to give us new life.

But it is still more. He is the eternal Son forever fully God and fully human. We are united to him in his resurrection. We are fed and nourished by the Lord of heaven. Nothing can ever separate us from him. He is the coming King who has set up his everlasting Kingdom.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. “ (John 1:14)

Read Jude ....

I wasn’t going to link at all and didn’t in my last post, but evil toward another needs to be held to the light. When a lady, Kelley, explains that she was raped but kept her baby because she, as a Christian ,values life, and others insult her it is time to be responsible.

In my last posting on the Manhattan Declaration I referred to the “Pastor’s Emergency League” and posted its four vows of purpose. One of those was, “I hold myself responsible to the utmost of my ability for those who are persecuted on account of this confessional stand.”

I want to point out that if the rest of society reacts the way followers at John Shuck’s “Shuck and Jive” are toward Kelley we all need to make that vow toward one another.

Kelley has fallen into a hornets’ nest and those who write there are acting out what is truly in their heart. I can only think here of a quote by C.S. Lewis that I have used before:

“…the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. … There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”

I once again hope that Shuck’s Presbytery takes note. And yes I did commend Kelley but my comment was of course deleted.