Mystery Without Rhyme or Reason. Michael Coffey

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СКАЧАТЬ are where holiness is waiting to be revealed.

      Devouring Fire

      Transfiguration A

      Exodus 24:12–18

      Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. (Exod 24:17)

      You in your holiness burn hot and wild

      and we cannot even touch the fringe

      like the sun we can only scuttle our ships

      lest we rocket too close and get pulled in

      But from time to time and place to place

      you let your devouring fire flame free

      and in grace it does not burn or consume us

      and we can stand to be in your corona unshielded

      Moses in the clouds and ocean floors undiscovered

      Jesus and Elijah mountaintops and firstborns swaddled

      astonishing enactments on earth of your will good and just

      moments when the second hand stops and joy lingers

      We would grasp you in these moments if we could

      but your flames elude our fingers and palms and minds,

      our categories and rules, and so you are free

      from our control and we are unscorched and glad to be

      Gracious Ritual of Ashes

      Ash Wednesday

      Joel 2:1–2, 12–17

      Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; (Joel 2:12)

      Mark me as one who will not outlast the earth

      or the melting icebergs or even the Brooklyn Bridge

      Mark me as one who will have a short skip and hop

      and reach the end of the sidewalk before too long now

      Mark me as one who knows well his nanometric life

      and sees in this ephemeral existence a hidden holy gift

      Mark me as ash and dust scattered about by artistic wind

      landing on a timeless canvas, painting I know not what

      Adam and Eve Again

      Lent 1 A

      Genesis 2:15–17, 3:1–7

      Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Gen 3:7)

      We can gather at that coffee shop you love

      and after a currant scone and a second cup

      I can say to you: I’ll be Adam, and you can be Eve

      and we’ll run naked through the orchard free

      We can relish our innocence fresh and unaware

      as we pluck berries and sit sunlit, grass on skin

      discovering again what our bodies are made for

      and why we love being just ourselves so

      I can follow a slick snake down the unbeaten path

      and you can stop and listen to his cues and queries

      we can follow him to the tree of knowing

      and eat and slurp the juice from our lips and chins

      Then we can know and know that we know

      and we can cover up and blush and hide ourselves

      from our true selves, from the holy within and without

      we stumble and fall, lose the gate key and walk on

      Later, when grace appears and envelops us

      we give thanks that we failed

      and knowing we failed, we celebrate becoming,

      the letting go of having been

      Next morning we rise and walk out fully dressed

      we gather at the café, smiling at our hidden nude selves

      and I say to you: I’ll be Adam, and you can be Eve

      and you nod and sip and off we go into the day

      Airstream

      Lent 2 A

      John 3:1–17

      The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

      Be born of wind and water said the Teacher in the night

      be new and swim and soar in the mystery of God now

      so Nick polished his Airstream, took it out on the road

      from Palo Duro Canyon to Big Bend and beyond

      he deleted entries in his Google calendar, went offline

      checked off incomplete tasks on his lists driving free

      stopping where ever it seemed the flow was flowing

      encountering strangers with deep pools of eyes

      from time to time someone on the roadside

      needed a tire change or a gallon of gas so he stopped

      occasionally he met someone at a Waffle House

      who sat alone, struck up a conversation, paid the tab

      once he met a woman with a thin three-year old and

      gave her a year’s worth of grocery money just like that

      then he stopped and stayed a while in Death Valley heat

      drank mango iced tea, absorbed desert wisdom like the sun

СКАЧАТЬ