His word

After Revelation 3:14-22 

His word

is the last

word.

His word

is the true

word.

His word

lasts.

His word

is truth.

His word

is the last

and the

true.

There is

no other.

 

Photograph by Ajay Meganathan via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Churches – Spitalfields Life.

 

Christos Nika – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

My Mom, Her Drug Addiction, and God’s Grace – Caleb Orella at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Sacred Forest – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

You ask, we answer

After Acts 4:1-14

There’s the question, tossed

lightly but landing with

a rather loud thud, asking

what power or name or

authority that the man is’

healed, that man crippled 

from birth, and that’s it,

the elephant in the room,

the asking powerful

surrounding the answering

insignificant. And the answer:

we heal in his name, you know, 

him, the one you crucified.

And if our words are lacking,

the healed man stands with us, 

a witness no one can refute.

Nothing can be done, they

mutter quietly to each other,

we’ll start a riot if we deny

the reality of what the people

see, so we come to this, 

a warning to stop the spread

of this contagion, already

afflicting thousands. 

They speak the warning,

looking into the eyes

of the future.

Photograph by Artem Maltsev via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The powers (earthly)

After Acts 4:1-14

We speak to the people,

telling them what we know

and experienced, explaining

the news (good). We say

nothing about priests or council

or rulers or elites, but words

strip away pretense, and there’s

the man, healed, the lame man,

the man hopping and jumping,

the man everyone knows

from birth, the man who never

walked, and there he is,

a living (walking) testimony

that what we say is true. It’s

annoying, and threatening,

because they know who we are,

the ones who were with him, 

the ones called disciples of that man,

that man they crucified. 

We have become an inconvenient

truth. 

Photograph by Sushil Nash via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The classroom

After Psalm 25:1-10

Noisy and shoving,

we crowd

into the room;

the teacher stands,

frowning and mute.

Noise and shoving

continue. I catch

his eye as he catches

mine.

The question asked.

My nod responds.

I want to know,

I want to learn,

I want to hear

his instructions

to know the truth

of what is right.

Photograph by Church of the King via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Truth is

After John 1:14-18

Truth is always incarnational.

Truth is not only a word or words

but truth is a deed, Truth is an act,

deliberate, demonstrated daily,

lived out daily, not confined

in the mind or intellect but

bursting forth from the chains,

artificial and unnecessary,

we weight it down with. Truth

breaks free of artifice and

artificiality, and walks the streets

where it is understood.

Photograph by Steve Bryant via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.