Do good, be punished

After John 11 

He had turned water

into wine, he had fed

5,000, he had calmed

storms, he had healed

lepers. He had saved

children, and now he

raised a man from

the dead. This was

too much; they feared

this miracle worker,

this rabble rouser;

they feared he would

become so strong that

he would attract the eyes

of the overlords, that

this man threatened 

everything they were,

everything they had.

The decision: he must

die for the good of all.

Better one man die

than the whole nation

perish.

 

Photograph by Ashkan Forouzani via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

To Translate the Ocean – SDG Morgan at Bandersnatch Books.

 

Grief and lament in Texas: Weeping with hope – Melissa Bondurant at CDM Women’s Ministry.

 

Don’t overlook Sunday – Stephen Kneale at Building Jerusalem.

 

A Matter of Politics? – Jean Danielou at The Imaginative Conservative.

A death in the family

After John 11 

Hearing his friend is ill, 

he does nothing, but

waits, surprising them all.

When he does come,

finally, the friend is

dead, four days dead and

in the tomb. Too late,

far too late, to heal.

The crowd follows as

he goes to the tomb;

the sister implies he

failed them all by 

waiting, that he could

have saved her brother,

his friend, because

nothing could be done

after death. Deeply moved,

he tells them to open

the tomb. He calls the man’s

name; the dead man rises

and walks, fully alive. 

We who are dead

hear our name called,

and we walk, 

fully alive.

 

Photograph by Wiki Sinaloa via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Reaching Outsiders with Our Words – Warren Peel at Gentle Reformation.

 

Two Ways to Gauge Contemporary Issues in Theology – Daniel DeWitt at TheoLatte.

Lazarus time 3

After John 11

The waiting is for naught,

for nothing; he dies, his body

placed within the cave.

Then the healing comes,

too late, trailed by despair

greeting despair. With

simple words the healing

speaks, words of life,

spilling from lips of life,

falling on death and

consuming it.

Related:

Lazarus time.

Lazarus time 2.

Painting: The Resurrection of Lazarus, watercolor over graphite on paper by James Tissot (circe 1886-1894); Brooklyn Art Museum.

Lazarus time 2

After John 11

It isn’t the timing,

it isn’t the healing,

this Lazarus time

when we wait

when we endure.

The waiting is the plan,

a part of what is

greater, what is

larger, what we do not

understand, It lies

beyond us, this answer,

this knowledge, and we

rage in frustration

at this waiting that

tempts the impulse

within us, not outside us.

Related: Lazarus time.

Painting: The Raising of Lazarus, oil on canvas by Vincent Van Gogh (1890); Van Gugh Museum, Amsterdam.

Lazarus time

After John 11

We wait for the healing

from this sickness;

the healing does not come.

Sickness, terminal, but

it can be healed,

we know. We do not

know why the healing

waits, why it does not come.

It is cruel, seems cruel,

is cruel,

this waiting, this cruelty

we impose on ourselves.

Illustration: Early Christian depiction of the raising of Lazarus.