What am I doing here?

After John 5:1-17

What am I doing here,

this pool and its colonnades,

with all its filth, it smells,

its piles of human waste

and wasted humans, lame,

blind, sick, broken in body

and broken in spirit. I step

 

carefully, avoiding 

the humans infesting

this place, these people

desperate to be healed,

waiting for the waters

to stir, signaling the time

to heal. No waters stir

this day, but a man makes

his way through the crowd

of brokenness and disease,

the crowd parting like so

many droplets and waves,

this man stirring human

waters, reaching one man,

telling him to rise, take

his bed, and walk. 

 

The waters stir this day,

unlike any other day,

stirring

unlike any other day.

 

Photograph by Mitch Hodge via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Breathbodyprayer – poem by Matthew Pullar at Kingdon Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Corpus Christi: Three Sonnets on Communion – Malcolm Guite.

 

Some thoughts on autism – Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

Waiting among the colonnades

After John 5: 1-17 

Inside the walls,

inside the gate

that Nehemiah built,

the lame, the sick,

the injured gather,

waiting among

the colonnades,

waiting for

the stirring

of the waters,

believing that

the first one 

in the pool

is healed. 

The man too lame

to make his way

despairs; no one

is there to carry

him to the waters,

no one to help,

no one to pick him

up and help him or

even throw him

into the waters.

On a day like

any other, a day

of despair, a man

comes to him and

says get up, get up

and walk. He stands,

picks up his bedding,

and walks, watching

the living, stirring

water walk and

disappear among

the crowds.

 

Photograph by Nadim the Dream via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Importance of Running a Rigged Race – Joshua Zackal at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

3 Patterns That False Teachers Follow – Matthew Harmon at Crossway.

 

A Sonnet for Trinity Sunday – Malcolm Guite.

 

The Fruit of the Spirit: Introduction – Robb Brunansky at The Cripplegate.

No good deed goes unpunished

After John 5:1-17 

A man lame and paralyzed

38 years is healed by the stirring

of the waters of the word,

and the result is wonder,

amazement, perhaps some fear,

and fury.

The healed man carries

his bed, as commanded,

violating the human sabbath.

That he is healed is not

the point, that he is healed

is beside the point, they say.

That the healer told him

to get up, take his bed,

and walk is superfluous. 

They want, they demand

the man who commanded

a violation of the sabbath,

both in the healing and

in the command.

The healed man sees

his healer again;

the sabbath-keepers know

who it is. No good deed

will go unpunished. 

 

Photograph by Hsiu Lee via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The stirring of different waters

After John 5:1-17 

He sees the multitudes

edging the pool 

in their distress

and their hope,

and he asks one,

one chosen from

among them, if

he wants to be 

healed. The man

does, desperately, 

but cannot drag 

himself fast enough

to the stirred pool

before someone else

steps first. But still,

hope. And this day,

miraculous, different

waters stir, waters

moved by the words

‘get up and walk.’

And he who cannot

drag himself fast

enough is bathed

in the waters

of the words,

and he stands,

takes his bed,

and walks.

 

Photograph by Rostyslav Savchyn via Unsplash. Used with permission.