After The Second Psalm

Why seek to thwart the Lord;
Or work against his will?

And plan for your own gain,
Via your neighbors ill?

Although you be a prince;
With force at your command,

You are a tiny mote
Within God's mighty hand.

The rules that God set out
Apply to one and all.

It is at your own risk
That you ignore God's call.

God's eyes they are not dim
God does not doze or sleep.

Today if you sow ill
Tomorrow ill you'll reap.

In Zion stands the king
His hand upon his sword.

The wise doubt not his will
The prudent hear his word.

Plot not harm or evil;
Don't kill or cheat or steal.

The Lord God is watching
And his wrath is real.

Good Grief

'Good Grief' seems to be a catchword for me lately. This piece is inspired by the passing of a great man, who we mourn. Certainly this is 'good grief'; to remember and miss those who have gone on to their reward, to honor their place with us, and share our memories:

They push off from here most every day
And for the farther shore
The saints sail onward to the place
Where head those Christ adores
The journey there is not so long
The river is not wide
They do not suffer on the trip
To Jordan’s other side

We wish them peace
And pray their souls
Into our Maker’s care
We will miss their presence here
And the all they used to share
A goodly crew sets off each day
From ports around the globe
To take up crowns and find their place
Beneath God’s mighty robe

We miss them all, so very much
And this grief is good.
Our lives are short and worth a lot
In death it’s understood.
So shed your tears and hold your friends
As tightly as you may
Because this world is not a place
That we may always stay.

And wait for joy, for it will come
Least on the other side
When all our hard day’s work is done
And we with the saints abide.
And there with our beloved saints
We’ll see the Lamb upraised
And cast our crowns upon the ground
May Jesus Christ be praised!

For Frank, and the great company of all the saints,

LE

Giving Thankfully

At some point in relationships
With individuals
With people in general
With the world
And with God
We find it is not enough to accept love, gifts, and support
We want to give back
And often we find that giving
Is the greatest gift of all

I see it in children who find it more important that they give something
A note,
A hug,
A gift,
Than that they receive something.

And with adults who find it affirms who they are and where they are going.

To receive requires only a desire or need, but giving puts you in relationship.

Friend of Mankind

Listen and compare to our Judeo-Christian stories of Jacob and Christ's resurrection in this, the legend of how Hiawatha obtained Maize (corn) to ease the hunger of humankind.

     "From the Master of Life descending, I, the friend of man, Mondamin, Come to warn you and instruct you, How by struggle and by labor You shall gain what you have prayed for. Rise up from your bed of branches, Rise, O youth, and wrestle with me!"

     Faint with famine, Hiawatha Started from his bed of branches, From the twilight of his wigwam Forth into the flush of sunset Came, and wrestled with Mondamin; At his touch he felt new courage Throbbing in his brain and bosom, Felt new life and hope and vigor Run through every nerve and fibre.

     So they wrestled there together In the glory of the sunset, And the more they strove and struggled, Stronger still grew Hiawatha; Till the darkness fell around them, And the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, From her nest among the pine-trees, Gave a cry of lamentation, Gave a scream of pain and famine.

     "'T Is enough!" then said Mondamin, Smiling upon Hiawatha, "But tomorrow, when the sun sets, I will come again to try you." And he vanished, and was seen not; Whether sinking as the rain sinks, Whether rising as the mists rise, Hiawatha saw not, knew not, Only saw that he had vanished, Leaving him alone and fainting, With the misty lake below him, And the reeling stars above him.

     On the morrow and the next day, When the sun through heaven descending, Like a red and burning cinder From the hearth of the Great Spirit, Fell into the western waters, Came Mondamin for the trial, For the strife with Hiawatha; Came as silent as the dew comes, From the empty air appearing, Into empty air returning, Taking shape when earth it touches, But invisible to all men In its coming and its going.

     Thrice they wrestled there together In the glory of the sunset, Till the darkness fell around them, Till the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, From her nest among the pine-trees, Uttered her loud cry of famine, And Mondamin paused to listen.

     Tall and beautiful he stood there, In his garments green and yellow; To and fro his plumes above him, Waved and nodded with his breathing, And the sweat of the encounter Stood like drops of dew upon him.

     And he cried, "O Hiawatha! Bravely have you wrestled with me, Thrice have wrestled stoutly with me, And the Master of Life, who sees us, He will give to you the triumph!"

     Then he smiled, and said: "To-morrow Is the last day of your conflict, Is the last day of your fasting. You will conquer and o'ercome me; Make a bed for me to lie in, Where the rain may fall upon me, Where the sun may come and warm me; Strip these garments, green and yellow, Strip this nodding plumage from me, Lay me in the earth, and make it Soft and loose and light above me.

     "Let no hand disturb my slumber, Let no weed nor worm molest me, Let not Kahgahgee, the raven, Come to haunt me and molest me, Only come yourself to watch me, Till I wake, and start, and quicken, Till I leap into the sunshine"

From Hiawatha; by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1856

We are Created Good

We are created good;
As all God creates is;

And God asks us to work;
In his fields out of love;

Love bears fruit and saves us;
Making us fit dwellings;

For our holy Father;
And his blessed Jesus.

Who calls out to each soul;
To offer them his yoke:

"Take it upon yourselves!"
"This burden is quite light!"

Sharing his life with us;
For all of us he died.

Though many start away;
He calls them "Come inside!"

Some from the faith will fall;
And others faith attain.

Yet Jesus came for all;
And calls each one by name.

(Not a definitive work on theology, just a finger, pointing...)

They are like the Angels

Todays revised common lectionary reading starts with a riddle, and ends with a great deal of hope and instruction:

Luke 20:27-38

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."

Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.

Did you hear? Our faithful departed are not dead, but alive in God. They do not have our mortal needs, and cannot die, but are like the angels.

So when we speak of our faithful departed, we should use the present tense.
Because they are alive in God, and with us when we pray.

Peace,
LE

In Our Furry Cousins

I heard a strange cry this morning;
An insistent cry;
A mournful, catbird-like cry;
It was a young squirrel, sitting on a branch,
Calling to her mortally wounded brother;
Who crouched, groggy with his injuries;
In the middle of the road.

I was able to get the little wounded animal into a box;
With shredded paper in the bottom for litter;
But it rapidly expired.

There was little I could do for our little brother;
With his wonderful fluffy tail;
And his soft creamy underbelly;
His clever paws, and his bright eyes;

I have prayed that God will accept his little soul;
Into God’s everlasting garden;
Where the trees are full of nuts and fruit;
And the ground is soft and forgiving;

And I also pray for the little lonely girl-squirrel;
Whose brother was taken from her so early;
And whom she so clearly mourned.

Something of the unifying life,
Something of God;
Dwells in these our furry cousins;
Our ability to love did not spring from nothing,
But grew, evolved from the little loves of creatures like these.

Somewhere in our ancestral tree,
Dwelt elders not unlike these;
Little lives and little souls;
Who lived, and loved, and leapt;
And who knew what it is to mourn.



Brother Squirrel was laid to rest near his family
beneath the giant oak tree where he lived.

The Unseen Tree

I have a maple tree in my back yard.

Or so I discover.

It was there all along, among the small trees growing behind the forsythia.

But the last couple days have been quite brisk,

And this morning,

As I made my mind up to apologize to someone,

The sun caught it just so;

And its leaves previously unremarkable,

Burst into flame.

And all the angels sang.

Peace,
LE

The First Psalm

(In a fixed meter)

Happy those who do not evil;
Who seek out not evil counsel;
Steering clear of paths of evil;
Scoffing not at what is righteous.

Happy those who study the law;
Who find delight in God's command.
Their roots tap unfailing water;
Greening them in drought and famine.

They bear fruit, they do not wither;
They are blessed and they will prosper.

This is not true for the wicked;
They do not have deep roots in them;

They thirst, suffer without releif.
Judgement will find them quite wanting;
With the righteous they can not stand.
Burned like weeds, they are cast away.

The Lord loves and guides the righteous;
Watches over every footstep;
It is not so for the wicked;
Their path leads to deepest
darkness;
Their way is lost, where none should go.