Poetry and Prayer—Day 4: February 29

Written by: Julia Smolucha

I Thank You God… by e.e. cummings

Fly, fast, on infinite wing to draw near to us. Hear our thank you: cardinal perched in snow-winter tree, food warm in bellies, vistas of dream-blue skies. Fly, fast, O God, to be near to us, for we are grateful. Amen.

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In the Meantime, II: Are You The One?

December 4, 2022

Yet in all these places, there are brave if reckless protesters willing to speak truth to power at great cost to themselves. Thank God for them and champion their cause if you can. And also thank God you live in the world’s oldest democracy where we make our decisions together as free and equal citizens and have the right to disagree and stay out of prison for saying it. Distrust and oppose anyone who won’t count your vote, no matter whom you vote for.

In the Meantime, I: The Already and The Not Yet

November 27, 2022

But you see why the Common Lectionary wants us to think about this apocalyptic literature on the first Sunday of Advent every year. “Advent” is a Latin word which means “to come,” “to arrive.” And the Lectionary wants us to remember that Jesus is the one who came and will come again. He came long ago to that feeding trough in Bethlehem, and he will come again on clouds of glory as a thief in the night. Christians live between the two Advents.

Stewardship to the Third Power, III: Home

November 20, 2022

Churches, said one architecture scholar, churches “stand out in total opposition to the narrowing and flattening of human experience, the deviation into the trivial.” Do you see what she means, that when we gather in a place steeped in the beauty of holiness we leave behind the narrow, flattened world of pedestrian experience, we forsake this deviation into the trivial for a world which reaches up into the vertical, toward God? Doesn’t it happen to you when you enter our sanctuary? Your spirit unfurls, your eyes reach up, sometimes even God comes near. I don’t think it is too much to say that without their churches, our cities would be too flat, boring, and two-dimensional to endure. Someone said that a church is not a building to worship IN but a building to worship WITH. Yes?

Poetry and Prayer—Day 4: February 29