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Upon the Life of Christ
When
Jesus
walked about the hills of Galillee,
revolutionaries
camped all about,
a
righteous
fire simmering in their bellies.
They
awaited
the time of action,
when
they
would take up arms against the oppressor
and
restore
power to their people.
God
himself
would fight for them,
and
the name
of Yahweh would be vindicated.
Though
some of his friends were revolutionaries,
Jesus
took
no part in the armed struggle.
At
that
time there were many who forsook political and social struggles,
believing
that the consumation of
would
not be
manifest through any human endeavour.
So
they journeyed
into the desert,
to
meditate
on the Scriptures, to pray,
and
to pursue
the discipline of the body.
There
they
awaited the coming of God's messiah.
Though
some of his friends were ascetics and quietists,
Jesus
was
not given to a passive spirituality.
And
there
were some in
could
only
continue by a careful compromise with the invader.
The
temple
aristocracy therefore conspired to hand all zealots
and
religious
radicals over to the Romans.
In
this manner,
the invader would become the guarantor of orthodoxy,
and
God's
name would be preserved.
Though
some of his friends were priests and scribes,
Jesus
never colluded with the aristocracy.
Jesus
joined none of these movements.
He
ratified
none of their claims.
Jesus
claimed
God for all the people,
from
the
least of them to the greatest.
To
all the
warring factions,
each
believing that God was on their side,
he
made a
simple declaration:
the
God of
the Hebrews in the God of the godless.
Jesus
lived
his life in the midst of these little people
and
gave them
his courage.
The
God of
Jesus will always be the God of the poor.
Let
us not,
therefore,
be
too swift
in claiming this God for ourselves.
Lord
Christ, God-forsaken one,
have
mercy
on us. Amen.
Upon the Urban Poor
Who are
these who wander the streets of
Collingwood,
eyes
empty
and shoulders hunched?
Who
are these
who live in thatches,
and
eat
McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and tea?
Who
are these
whom society has hidden away
and
pacified
with drugs and psychiatry?
These
are the
schizophrenic and the tortured of mind.
Lord,
have
mercy: Lord, have mercy
Who are
these whose emotions have been numbed?
Who
are these
whose weeping cannot be stilled,
whose
grief
rages wild and deep?
Who
are these
who blame themselves,
and
morn for
the passing of a kinder world?
These
are the
mothers and fathers of suicide.
Christ,
have
mercy: Christ, have mercy.
Who are
these who hug the bottle for warmth,
whose
spirits
wander homeless through concrete jungles?
Who
are these
who mourn the loss of sacred lands,
whose
weeping
echoes across two hundred years?
These
are the
firstborn from the Dreamtime.
Lord,
have
mercy: Lord, have mercy.
Who are
these who fill the churches,
lifting
their
voices in praise to God Most High?
Who
are these
who read the stories of Jesus and
pray
God's
blessing on their going out and their coming in?
Who
are these
who are ever seeing, but never perceiving,
ever
hearing
but never understanding?
These
are the
ones who hearts are stone.
Christ,
have
mercy: Christ, have mercy.
Who is this
whose form is bruised and
mis-shapen,
who
sight is
obscured by blood?
Who
is this
man who bears the cross of shame,
who
staggers
the path of ultimate suffering?
Who
is this
person unjustly accused,
the
victim of
trumped-up charges and civilized corruption?
This
is
Jesus, the poet from
Lord,
have
mercy: Lord, have mercy.
These prayers are
© Garry
Deverell of