Poetry and Prayer—Day 6: March 3

Written by: Julia Smolucha

When I Consider How My Light Is Spent by John Milton

God: consider us. Hold us this day. Bend our soul toward you, this day and the rest. As sun rises, make us of use. And stand sentinel over our day and night. Amen.

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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?

Stewardship to the Third Power, II: Neighbor

November 13, 2022

What Isaiah wants us to know is that the worship of God is not internal, private, contemplative, and vaporous; but external, public, pro-active, and dense as lead. Look, I’m glad you pray your prayers. I’m glad you talk to the Almighty on a regular basis. I’m glad you read your Bible. I’m glad some of you fast during Lent. And I’m really glad that you come to divine worship every Sunday. But according to Isaiah, that’s not really what true religion is, or at least not all it is. The proper worship of God has its boots on the ground, goes to work, and dramatically enfleshes its existence. Proper worship puts the pedal to the metal, the rubber to the road, and the hammer to the nail, sometimes quite literally.

Poetry and Prayer—Day 6: March 3