a way in the wilderness

This is my body, broken:

pierced and bleeding, shrouded
in darkness and alone

Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?

Father-forsaken, the Light recedes.  

Rocks cry out, the curtain tears,
brave women do not flee.

This is my Body, broken:

my radiant Church lies 
pierced and bleeding, wounded 
by friendly-fire burn

This sickness shall not end in death

The dead are raised, the blind will see and 
you, love, shall be healed (only say the Word).

You are No Longer Deserted, re-created, 
the very image of God

See, I am making a way in the wilderness,

streams in the wasteland

Hephzibah, my delight: rend your heart 
and not your garments. Rend your heart 
and not your brother. Every blood
soaked strand is fuel for the fire

Take off the grave clothes

Put on the new self and arise. Only
love will bind my Church in perfect unity.

Bind up the brokenhearted and return 
to me, the Spirit poured-out-still.

There is one Body and one Spirit; to 
one hope were you called. At 
one Table we celebrate your redemption

As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you

I Am the Word, calling 
life from formless void.

I Am the Truth, revealing

the invisible God is Love.

Unbound, embody your blessing:

light up the darkness, Beloved.

Do this in remembrance of me

Reworked from the archives, for weary hearts. Image: purolipan

to one hope She presses

There is a time to kneel and a time to stand, and we stand for the Gospel and the Nicene Creed. With red prayer book in hand or heart, we recite the words that crossed the lips of fourth century Christians and rise today in congregations across the globe. 

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We believe together and affirm it as one, unlike the “I” of the Apostles Creed I grew up memorizing, the “I” of Protestant work ethic and personal salvation. With the Nicene Creed, we gather and we believe, we empty-nesters and octogenarians, families, friends, blue bloods, and the 47%.

There are times we believe on each other’s behalf, like the men who brought their friend to Jesus, lowering him through the roof tiles: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” It was their faith that sparked his healing, body and soul.

I believed for you when your heart was fearful. You believed for me when my foot slipped. We steady the knees that give way; we speak and believe.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We recite the Creed every Sunday, even when the diocese schismed and hearts rent. It was a divorce from which our community has yet to fully recover.

But there were streams amid desert as saints kept their watch. The men’s Bible study never stopped gathering at the Christian camp for coffee and prayer. The generous buoyed the struggling, as always, and we celebrated, grieved, and served together, because there’s always been more that unites us than that which divides. Christ’s diasporic Church is catholic still.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We speak the words like prophesy. Like the Word, we exhale life, ordering the chaos. There is

One Lord
One faith, to
One hope are we called

One baptism
One Body, many gifts.
One Giver
One work
One Table
One Church

Jim Wallis is known for saying, “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change.”

We do believe, LORD. Help us overcome our unbelief.

*Photograph by D-Stanley, Creative Commons via Flickr. 

and the beat got sicka

On my nightstand:

At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance: A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. This book is incredible, and I'm only a few chapters in. A painful (and potentially triggering) read, certainly, but it tells a crucial side to the civil rights movement that is largely missing from popular history, illuminating many of the activists, newspapers, and organizations that fought tirelessly against sexualized violence and for racial justice. Many thanks to Austin Channing Brown who tweeted the NPR piece on Parks' activism that led me to track it down.

The Fault in Our Stars undid me. I can't recall sobbing at a novel like that since Bridge to Terabithia when I was ten. It's a good one, particularly if you have a fondness for catharsis or YA fiction.

We've also been reading lots of kids' lit. Our library is always such a treasure, but when the weather's this terrible, it's a lifeline for which I am tremendously grateful.

On TV:

My favorite show right now, hands down, is Pretty Little Liars. Make of that what you will, but if you've never seen it, I'm jealous that you have four seasons on which to potentially binge, while I have to wait a whole week for one measly hour. It's a soapy teen mystery set where I grew up, everyone has glorious hair, and it's pretty much the best.

I'm so glad Scandal returned, but I wish the Gladiators would get back to working cases, cuz I'm not here for President Fitz's White House woes. Or Quinn. She may even be worse than Fitz.

Jessica and I've been watching Veronica Mars, swooning over Logan, and getting pumped to see THE! MOVIE! that Kickstarter built. Yasssss.

In my ears:

Mostly Beyoncé and entirely too many pre-school singalong renditions of Let It Go. Live Decemberists in the car. Rinse. Repeat.

On the interwebs:

• Lupita Nyong’o Embraces Dark Beauty in Black Women in Hollywood Acceptance Speech (The Root)
• Hollywood: Whitewashing the Bible (Ghetto Monk)
• 'I Am Still Called by the God I Serve to Walk This Out' (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
• Leigh Kramer's series on The Enneagram & Blogging
• Toxicity: The True Story of Mainstream Feminism’s Violent Gatekeepers (Aaminah Khan @ Black Girl Dangerous)
• My 13-Year-Old Wants To Shave His Afro Because His White Peers Won’t Stop Touching It (Liz Dwyer @ My Brown Baby)
• The Power Of Love part 1: James Cone’s Relational Theology (Rod @ Political Jesus)
• There Is No Such Thing As A Child Prostitute [TW] (Washington Post)
• Jordan Davis and Unarmed Blackness (Drew Hart)
• Standing Our Ground In Prayer (Osheta Moore)
• On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
• Worthy (Austin Channing Brown)
• Jubilee: Insight From The Next Generation (Deidra Riggs)

On the blog:

We celebrated six years here. (What.) I wrote about baptized abuse apology and the dawn of something better. And I had posts up at A Deeper Story (Out of Ash) and one at Missio Alliance for their Christianity & Violence Series (Christians, Stop Shooting Our Wounded).

[I did pick party favor winners and will be notifying/mailing shortly: Sarah H, Diana, Christina, and Alyssa. Thanks, everyone!]

On the home front:

Dylan is six, and James is four. We seem to be growing out of some of the eating battles and power struggles and discovering a happy new normal, and it's a beautiful thing. Also, they are now both old enough to go to the YMCA's monthly babysitting night and our friend's weekly youth club, which means that Jim and I have gone out more in the past few weeks that we have in the entire first few years of parenting. Having big-little kids is a game-changer, man. Love.

We booked a house with friends on the Jersey Shore for August. Dreaming of bay view balconies and warm sand beaches and remembering it won't be snowy and sub-zero forever.

Fifteen chirping baby chicks camped out in our bathroom 'til the weather warms:

On the horizon:

Spriiiiiiiing. (Let it be, Lord.) Lent. Mah birthday! Tapping trees. Reading Micha Boyett's Found. Seeing Arcade Fire--with tickets I won:) It's gonna be a good March.

What are YOU looking forward to? Did you watch the Oscars last night? I thought it was a really fun show, even though I've barely seen any of the recognized movies. What was your favorite film/dress/speech/anything? What are you reading, watching, or smitten with of late?

 

{image: ModernGrandma on Etsy}