Spiritual Sunday
Given how today’s Old and New Testament readings are drenched in poetry, I feel particularly fortunate to participate in the service, both as crucifer and as a reader (lector). The readings begin with the Book of Isaiah (“For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations”) and culminate with John’s unsurpassed declaration (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”).
Dan Clendenin’s Journey to Jesus alerts me to a Brian Wren poem that captures the drama of God in the world. The poem’s power lies in its specificity, which gets us to experience God’s creation in all of its variety and sensual immediacy:
Good is the flesh that the Word has become,
good is the birthing, the milk in the breast,
good is the feeding, caressing and rest,
good is the body for knowing the world,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the body for knowing the world,
sensing the sunlight, the tug of the ground,
feeling, perceiving, within and around,
good is the body, from cradle to grave,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the body, from cradle to grave,
growing and aging, arousing, impaired,
happy in clothing, or lovingly bared,
good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
longing in all, as in Jesus, to dwell,
glad of embracing, and tasting, and smell,
good is the body, for good and for God,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.