This Bonus Poem was written in response to a friend, a Vietnam vet who is also an active member of Veterans for Peace, who was lamenting, and asking prayers because of, the buildup of weaponry and rhetoric on both sides in Ukraine.
It Seems to Me I've Heard This Song Before
When noisy sabers rattle,
And no one wants to battle,
Except the people who would profit by,
Then folk of every nation,
Make prayer your firm foundation,
And gird your loins to bury battle cries!
S.L.B.
Isaiah 6:1–8, (9–13) (also the O.T. reading for Trinity Sunday, Year B)
Marc Chagall, The Prophet Isaiah, 1968
Musée National Marc Chagall, Nice, France.
The Odd and Overwhelming Otherness of God
The odd and overwhelming
otherness of God
—In which Isaiah stands as if
he's some divining rod
Who's found the source of life
and all creatIon's power—
Is followed by so deep a self-
awareness, he just cowers
In his inadequacy:
Woe! Lost! And unclean!
And he is doomed, for all
the majesty that he has seen;
But God has means, it seems,
the doomed one to reclaim,
The coal in tongs atones,
and guilt departed is proclaimed.
But lest we think the prophet
basks in holy bliss,
All-glowing with what must have seemed,
with such an act, God's kiss,
The one who's touched, looks up,
and from his bended knee,
And knowing what he's called to do,
says, "Here I am; send me!"
Such odd, persistent grace
comes when and where it will;
To you, to me, and everyone,
So love its name fulfills.
Scott L. Barton
(The phrase "the odd, overwhelming otherness of God," and other ideas in the poem come from Walter Brueggemann's Isaiah 1-39 in the Westminster Bible Companion series, pp. 57-60.)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.
And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
+ + +
Luke 5:1–11
Christ Calling the First Disciples
San Pedro Bautista, Candelaria, Philippines
photo, Ramon Velasquez
Winning Combination
He had the winning combination
That’s known by every congregation
When it’s alive and full of spirit
That shows when someone comes to visit;
They found that he was energizing
By doing two things quite surprising.
He simply knew what went unheeded,
And simply did what people needed;
For news from God is what they hungered—
In words both brave, and full of wonder!
Thus he proclaimed, his words the blessing
They then received upon their pressing.
And next, he showed them such astounding
Largesse around them, so abounding,
The efforts of th’entire gath’ring
Were needed to haul in, so stagg’ring
The bounty each and all provided
When by his steering they were guided.
Perhaps belief is overrated,
And God’s providing, understated;
So if you feel you’re catching nothing,
Announce the news that’s still so stunning:
Through all our hunger, wealth and sighing,
To each and all, Love’s here! Supplying!
Scott L. Barton
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Lectionary Poems, Year C: Even More Surprising Grace for Pulpit and Pew, which has all these poems for the year, 150 of them, including seven new hymn texts, with two indices of scriptural references and titles, is available from Wipf and Stock, Amazon, or, the least expensive, from me, signed and inscribed, for only $11 (which includes tax) and $3.19 postage. Check or Venmo. Write me at scott.l.barton[at sign]gmail[dot com]! —S.L.B.
Jeremiah 1:4–10 and 1 Corinthians 13:1–13
Marc Chagall: Jeremiah (1980)
How to Tell the Difference
You'll never know when you'll be called
To do a job that might appall
You otherwise, some other day,
Without some prod into the fray.
How do you know, though, if it's real,
A call?—or just some clanging spiel
You'd love to make? Perhaps, just take
A look to see whence comes the ache.
Is it your need that you be heard?
Or is it love calls forth some word
Of truth you still find hard to say,
Though God would have you find the way?
Scott L. Barton
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’;
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you,
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
“Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
[also]
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
+ + +
Luke 4:21–30
James Jacques Joseph Tissot:
Brow of the Hill Near Nazareth (between 1886 and 1894)
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Cliff Note
They tried to throw him off a cliff!
That seems a bit extreme to me,
Although, in other places far away
I read it happens by decree;
Not long ago in Timbuktu,
Extremists had the upper hand—
They took a thief outside the gates,
And at the law's quite clear command,
Some poor guy's now an amputee!
We seem to want to purge the one
Who's different from our midst, as if
Somehow, God's work will then be done!
It's not just there, but even here,
Where fear and anger still drives some
To take the law into their hands,
And think the world is safe from scum.
But Jesus, passing through the crowd,
Reminds us simply: Be not proud.
Scott L. Barton
Then [Jesus] began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
1 Corinthians 12:12–31a
Can “Religion” = Re-ligament Again?
A Jewish friend once wrote to me
About the news from Canterb’ry;*
He thought that Justin Welby seemed
Reactionary, since the seams
Of Anglicans had now been frayed
From sanctions over matters gay.
I told him Welby’s job was tough,
Consid’ring some had had enough,
Preferring the Americans
Would go their separate way, again,
And leave a great and worldwide fold,
A purer church to then behold.
It’s painful that some matters rank
So high to some, they’d draw a blank,
Forgetful of this chapter, where,
Paul says we must with others bear
When they are diff’rent!—since in Christ,
All parts that are in him, suffice.
My friend, no synagogue attends,
And frequently with me contends
Religion is no tie that binds,
But rather splits both hearts and minds;
Sometimes I fear that he is right,
And wish this text be heeded, quite.
Scott L. Barton
(*http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/world/europe/anglican-archbishops-sanction-us-episcopal-church-over-gay-marriages.html?)
Luke 4:14–21
from Franco Zefirelli’s film, “Jesus of Nazareth” (1977)
Tickled by the Word
I think that they were thrilled to find
The hometown boy, who made them proud;
Their oohs and aahs, like him, not shy,
Were happily to all avowed.
He pulled no punches, thus they fixed
Their startled eyes in pleased delight.
When from the heart, a reader reads,
The reader, list’ners’ faith invites.
Don’t jump ahead yet to next week,
When too much boldness flipped their switch;
For now, remember to proclaim!
For that’s the scratch that cures our itch.
Scott L. Barton
Isaiah 62:1–5
Proposal
If you were thinking you would wed,
Would you choose one who’s almost dead?
But if you were the latter, dying,
Would you, betrothed, for joy be crying?
Isaiah thus describes a God
Who, unlike others, is so odd,
The Maker of creation chooses
To love those whom the world refuses;
And if such love you can’t conceive,
Just stop. For you need just receive.
Scott L. Barton
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
until her vindication shines out like the dawn,
and her salvation like a burning torch.
The nations shall see your vindication,
and all the kings your glory;
and you shall be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will give.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the LORD delights in you,
and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your builder marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.
+ + +
John 2:1–11
What Makes You Think You Don't Need It?
This Jewish mother knew the score;
She knew her son could do much more
Than just sit back, all uninvolved;
And so, this ponderer resolved
That she'd weigh in, and speak her mind,
E'en though, this son of hers, unkindly
Snapped!
Sometimes you need a push
To get yourself up off your tush;
And if that's true of even God,
Perhaps for you, it's not so odd.
Scott L. Barton
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
12th century mosaic
in Cappella Palatina,
Palermo, Italy
Acts 8:14–17
Holy! Holy! Holy!
What makes
the Holy Spirit
but the fact,
the revelation,
that we’re not alone!
Peter and John
laid their hands
on the Samaritans,
and they knew.
That’s all it took.
And so it always is—
the handshake,
the warm hug,
the embrace,
the touch on the arm,
the laying on of hands,
the feel of water
from the community’s pool
(no matter its size);
and all of these announce
to one and to all,
that he is not alone,
that she is not alone.
You. Are. Not. Alone.
That’s how God works.
Holy! Holy! Holy!
Scott L. Barton
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
+ + +
Isaiah 43:1–7 and Luke 3:15–17, 21–22
Unplumbed Depths
We think we know this Jesus and
We've got him all pinned down,
Until he gets himself baptized,
Like everyone in town.
But then a voice is heard that he's
Beloved! God's well-pleased!
Remember how Isaiah said,
With passion, God was seized
With love for people cast afar,
And pleaded they would know
The steps God takes so they might see
God's love still overflow?
These waters Jesus passes through
Say you can never plumb
The depths, nor height, nor length of love
That nothing overcomes.
Scott L. Barton
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you,
I give people in return for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
+ + +
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Albrecht Dürer: The Adoration of the Magi
1511 woodcut, National Gallery of Art
Isaiah 60:1–6
Imagine a Time
Isaiah here imagines when
The shoe is on the other foot,
And Israel, in exile then,
One day would find acclaim—and loot!
But, though, like gold and frankincense,
The wealth would come, the nation’s light
Would be the draw for those from whence
Dark sadness was the whole world’s flight.
And so, the prophet did not yearn
So much the nation would be great,
But for the time when all would burn
With love the world would emulate.
America, of old, once thought
That we’re a city on a hill,
So, at our best, our nation sought
To be a people of good will.
Can we, whose life might others lift,
Return to how the world might see
This grand experiment a gift
For those who yearn for liberty?
And might the church, a prophet be,
Awakening each neighborhood
To our responsibility
For showing we believe God’s good?
Scott L. Barton
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the LORD will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the LORD.
+ + +
Matthew 2:1–12
So We Might Kneel
I picture Herod calm and cool,
Who, though afraid, was no one's fool,
And asked the wise men where was born
Messiah, now that he'd been warned.
I picture in his royal world
A Snidely Whiplash, mustache curled,
Whose soto voce, "Bwa-ha-ha"
Lurked underneath his claimed, "Hurrah!"
Once more, then, this Epiphany,
Beware the one who claims to see
The news of Christ with words so glib
He'd keep the baby in his crib—
And do him in! But picture now
Those seekers who could disavow
Belief Jerus'lem was the key
—E'en though Isaiah said 'twould be—
And went with Micah, who proclaimed
That Bethlehem would be acclaimed
The place from whom a shepherd king
To all the world good news would bring!
Another road those magi took,
(The wise men, who at first, mistook
The way of love that God revealed)
So we, like them, in awe might kneel.
Scott L. Barton
(Cf. the Isaiah text [Jerusalem] with Micah 5:2-5a [Bethlehem])
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”
When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
The children and their children have all left,
The last driveway goodbyes, hugs and I love yous
Preceding the honks of their cars,
Heading down to Route 9 and the Turnpike,
Heading east, from whence will soon come the Magi.
My wife and I, wise with our years, walk inside,
I fix the last eggnog, embellished, and she her tea;
I put on the new CD of Ma and Ax and Beethoven,
And we sink into our chairs by the still-fresh tree,
She on her I-Pad, while I open Barrie’s “A Way with Words,”
At least until we both nod off in a nap, where, no doubt,
Visions of those sweet ones will dance in our heads.
Merry Christmas!
