tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20010538.post6300759891136092510..comments2023-10-06T06:24:23.622-04:00Comments on don't eat alone: sunday sonnet #14Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20010538.post-21070916057297588802010-11-22T11:01:03.552-05:002010-11-22T11:01:03.552-05:00"that labor deepens with distance from the te..."that labor deepens with distance from the telling"<br /><br />Amen.gandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20010538.post-60180102049051190642010-11-22T09:44:04.818-05:002010-11-22T09:44:04.818-05:00Milton--
I understand your hesitance with kingdom...Milton--<br /><br />I understand your hesitance with kingdom language. I share some of your concerns, but I'm not ready to let it go, partly because it is Jesus' language, and partly because (as you've said) we don't have anything adequate to take its place.<br /><br />I have a friend who is a poet, Susan Palo Cherwien, and she wrote a new Christ the King hymn a few years back. This year we published a new collection of her texts, <i>Come, Beloved of the Maker,</i> that includes it. And I set it to music for my congregation.<br /><br />Before the Ancient One, Christ stands,<br />Enrobed in cloud and bright as snow,<br />Five wounds imprint his side, feet, hands, <br />And thorns, the garland on his brow. Yet thrones and powers fall to the knee<br />And weave a song of majesty,<br />For what the world admires as gain<br />Is not the essence of Christ's reign,<br />And strength is his, and name and might,<br />Because he pitied humans' plight.<br /><br />Who was, and is, and is to come<br />As servant lived in human sphere;<br />Compassion was his diadem;<br />His glory was the gentle tear;<br />Humility, his pruple garb;<br />The healing hand, his royal orb.<br />Such love drew ire and ore drew death,<br />But God has proved the truer strength,<br />And through all space the host proclaims<br />The name above all other names.<br /><br />Now in the latter days you call,<br />O Christ, and plead the premise clear,<br />That power grasped is none at all,<br />And serving shows your Spirit near.<br />As nations clash and wisdom wanes,<br />As glories tempt and greed sustains,<br />You bid us choose in every hour<br />The power of love, the greatest power,<br />That love may herald God's domain,<br />And you, at last, may come to reign.<br /><br />Copyright © 1997 Susan Palo CherwienBobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00105505065496533907noreply@blogger.com