The Text that Deconstructs our Control (if we let it)…

Copernican Revolution

Reading Beyond Liberalism & Fundamentalism:  How Modern and Postmodern Philosophy Set the Theological Agenda, Nancy Murphy.

Also thinking about redaction of the Hebrew Scriptures.  The evidence that exists within and beyond the canon of Scripture that the Pentateuch is composed of four main sources or documents that were edited together:  J, E, P, and D.  Each with a distinct vocabulary and theological perspective.

J: Yahwist

E:  Elohist

P:  Priestly

D:  Deuteronomy

This comes through early on in the two creation accounts.  In Genesis 1:27 people are created first.  The second creation account is not simply a reprise of the first, but differs from the first both in outline and in detail. 

Genesis 1:1-2:3, the first account, narrates the creation of a highly symmetrical world by a very powerful deity who creates through the word.  In this account, for example, man and woman are created together (1:27) after the creation of the land animals (1:25).  In contrast, the second account, in Gen. 2:4-3:24, suggests that man was created (2:7), then the animals (2:19), and then woman (2:21-22).  Its focus is on the creation of humanity, not of the entire physical world, and God anthropomorphically ‘forms’ various beings, rather than creating them with the word.  Thus, these are two distinct accounts, written by two authors, representing different worldviews about the nature of creation, humanity, and God.  –The New Oxford Annotated Bible:  New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha (3rd edition)

Old Testament:  Text in Context is providing a framework within which we can hold with an open hand the mystery of revelation and at the same time study the evidence of experience that informs our understandings of text.  Learning how the Bible came to be is an important task if we are to do justice to questions that emerge from the text.  Questions like…

1.  Where did Cain’s wife come from? 

2.  Who is Melchizedek?  (Gen. 14; Psalm 110; Hebrews)

3.  Why does Exodus differentiate between the treatment of male and female slaves, whereas Deuteronomy insists that they should both be treated similarly. 

I am a firm believer that critical questions are part and parcel of pursuit of truth.  Questions are not evidence of antagonism toward faith.  On the contrary, critical questions are put forth with the assumption that Truth fears no questions.  Questions are a movement toward God, away from illusions and false constructs.  Questions move us from blind certainty to open embrace of holy mystery. 

Why do we prefer not to face questions that emerge from the Text and Experience?  Perhaps because they may deconstruct the “system”…the faith construct which underpins everything about our life–from beliefs to outward practices.  We fear that if a question dislodges one of the pieces of our worldview, the whole structure will come crashing down.  Chaos.  So we limit the questions, so that we can stay in control of “the world” as we “know” it.  These are the stakes given foundationalist assumptions about truth. 

Murphy would say that it need not be so.  Murphy is working toward a holism that is able to hold mystery and paradox, being as communion, along with the knowledge that comes to us from examining the physical world.  Communion not with a system of truth, but with God who comes to us through language and matter, but is not fully contained in language and matter.

What comes after the critical questions…after deconstruction?  Nihilism or faith as mystery?  The answer to that question largely depends on the Community one organically connects with in the pursuit of knowledge (God).  Our knowledge always comes to us communally whether we admit it or not.  The Communal knowledge (see Sara Wenger Shenk for an Anabaptist take on this) will determine which questions are permissable and which ones are dangerous.  The Community will shape the reading of Text.  The Community we do or do not place ourselves within will determine whether we live isolated individual “truth” (abstract system) or a communal knowledge (which is inherently relational and holistic). 

Most modern readers do not acknowledge the communal dimension of reading the text.  Because Modernity has placed the individual at the center of the universe, and enlightenment assumptions about text have liberated each individual to be their own authority, the interpretations of individuals dictate the Communities they choose to be a part of.   Individuals think they are submitted to a Community of knowledge (a tradition), but if we pay close attention, we see that it is in fact individuals picking and choosing which Community upholds their individual presuppositions.  When the “wrong” kinds of language or interpretation of text enters that community, the individual will move on to some other community which preserves (for the moment) their sense of foundationalist truth. 

Other communities are predominantly bounded-set social groups which condition behavior through a prescribed engagement with Text which allows for a limited range of questions that may emerge from Experience or Reading.  The Communal knowledge is preserved by conformity to a Communal set of behaviors.  These bounded-set communities usually are not diverse.  Often, these communities represent a sociological set that one is born into and remains a part of for life (i.e. Amish…).  There are also economic factors that are at play within these bounded-set expressions of Communitas. 

So, who was Cain’s wife?  Which did God create first, animals or humans?  Is ancient Hebrew creation poetry which seeks to explain the mystery of origins inherently opposed to evidence presented by the physical sciences?  The answers to these questions (even the way we frame the questions) and a myriad of other questions will be determined by the Community we place ourselves within as we seek God, truth…knowledge.

Centering our stories in God’s Story…

Strasburg Mennonite Church Renewal Meetings

Tuesday evening:  Luke 19:1-9

 “Where We’re From” (SMC 60s and older SS class, p. 20)

Once a month we center ourselves in God’s story in a special way at Sunnyside MC.  For about 12 years now we have been celebrating Communion once a month.  We do this to remember that while our individual stories, our family stories, and our congregational story have shaped us deeply, we are continually being invited to center ourselves in God’s story.  Gathering around the Lord’s Table helps us to do this.  To see our stories through that larger salvation story—not just individually but as a community surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.  The liturgies we use give us the language to place ourselves within that story.  Much like the shabat tradition in Jewish families, each time we come to this Communal Table, the past and present come together.  We identify our stories with God’s Story and the story of God’s people throughout history. 

Share one of the Communion liturgies we use as an illustration of this.  Communion Liturgy Power Point

Why is the Communion Table an important expression of centering our stories in the larger Story of God?  Over and over again throughout the history of the church there have been divisions that have marred the church’s ability to reflect unity in Christ.  We (the Church) have not found a way to embody Ephesians 4:4-6 over time—particularly in the last 500 years.  “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

 Refer to last two slides of Communion Liturgy PPT…which provide a picture of the church family tree.  38,000 denominations in America alone.  The pattern of looking to Word and Spirit alone has not been able to keep us at the Communion Table together in the Church.  Does this picture reflect the working of the Spirit?

What is the Spirit saying to the churches?   Perhaps we will only be able to discern the answer to that question as at the Table that uncovers the reality of the crucified Lamb of God who is the Risen and Coming King of the Ages.  It is a Table that calls us to a mutual submission that subverts the strong current toward independence and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.  So the sending charge and blessing (Communion Liturgy) commissions us for our ministry of reconciliation in the world—a ministry that sends us to other tables to give and receive hospitality.  To reaffirm our identity as a people of Christ’s peace in a hurting world.  To reaffirm that we are called to be a people who seek to bring healing where there is disunity among Christians. 

Today we heard the familiar Zacchaeus story.  How might this story shape us as we seek to center our stories in God’s story?  Do you remember the song? 

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see.
And as the Savior passed him by, He looked up in the tree,
And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down from there;
For I’m going to your house today, for I’m going to your house today”

We identify with Zacchaeus from little on up.  Perhaps because he is short in stature, perhaps because he climbs trees.  Whatever the reason, this song and story captures our childhood imaginations.  I believe there is more to this story.  This story speaks to us about missional table practices and how we relate to others who have not lived up to our bounded-set understandings of righteousness. 

Who was Zacchaeus?  We know about his height.  But this was not the reason he was looked down upon.  He was a chief tax collector and was rich.  His occupation was dependent on supporting the Imperial system set up under Caesar Augustus.  Pax Romana provided roads and military defense with a price.  The hand of Caesar reached into Palestine at the time of Jesus.   Even temple worship had been corrupted by its relationship with empire.  Temple worship had become a market-driven reality.  Jesus confronts this a number of times in the gospels. 

Zacchaeus is an Israelite by birth who has cozied up to the Roman system.  He has personally benefitted from the oppressive system that placed a heavy tax burden on the religious faithful—especially on the poor.  People resented Zacchaeus for this very reason. 

We also see in the story that despite Zacchaeus’ wealth, he is searching for something.  He is apparently searching for something that money can’t buy.  So he climbs up in a tree to get a glimpse of the itinerant Rabbi, Jesus, who is passing by.  Can you imagine Bill Gates climbing up in a tree to catch a glimpse of the traveling Rabbi? 

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up…  I wonder what caught Jesus’ attention.  Was Zacchaeus the only one in the tree?  Was Jesus aware of the hunger in Zacchaeus’ heart that would send him into his perch overhead?  Perhaps there was nothing out of the ordinary.  Perhaps it was that Jesus had eyes to see the missional table possibilities along the way.  He was not so driven by his agenda, by his schedule that he missed the opportunity right in front of him.  Or above him to be most precise. 

I wonder if that isn’t the case more often than not.  That it’s the intrusions, the things along the way, that provide the opportunity to meet Jesus at missional tables.  Our routine of work and raising families may be well and good, but if we are going to encounter Jesus at table, it will likely mean that we need to make room for interruptions.  It may mean we even are willing to invite ourselves (or be invited) to someone else’s table from time to time.  It may mean that we are willing to divest ourselves of the power that goes along with being the host—with always being in the position of giver and not willing to humble ourselves and receive.   

Jesus models a freedom that goes with this level of humility.  We saw it at the Samaritan well in Sychar—he asks for a drink.  We see it here—Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ home.  Zacchaeus is thrilled and readily gets out of the tree.  But not everyone is happy.  The crowd grumbles.  Perhaps they are stuck in bounded-set thinking that is fearful of what message will be sent by Jesus associating with a “sinner.”  Perhaps they are baffled by Jesus’ willingness to be at table with someone who quite obviously has sold out to the wrong things.  Is Jesus condoning the behavior, the values of Zacchaeus?   Jesus is undeterred by the grumbling of the people.  He goes to Zacchaeus’ house.

What about us?  Where are we in the story?  Individually and as Strasburg Mennonite Church?  Historically, our communal story as Lancaster Conference Mennonites has called us to mind the boundaries.  Whether it was dress, or other practices of discipleship—we have clearly been a people who have understood our faith in Jesus as one that called us to be separate from the world.  Non-conformity to the world was understood in very specific ways.  The boundaries have shifted over the years, but I wonder if there is not an underlying disposition still very much conditioned by our “come out from among them and be ye separate says the Lord” story.  Perhaps we have not learned how to encounter Jesus at table with Zacchaeus, with the Samaritan woman, because it would mean letting go of our bounded-set thinking and trusting that Jesus is present at those tables already. 

But here is Jesus, our standard of holiness, taking the risk of being labeled  as something or other as he relates to Zacchaeus.  Here is Jesus, embodying the good news that extends to all people and invites them to reconciliation with God and the community of God’s people, even before they have their act together.    

Again this is a story of transformation.  This table encounter of inviting oneself to be the guest, of being willing to receive the table ministry of another, leads to transformation for Zacchaeus.  We don’t know what all Jesus and Zacchaeus talked about over the meal, but we do know the conversation had a profound impact on Zacchaeus.  His heart is changed.  We know this because we see a different relationship with his money.  Greed and hoarding are transformed in to generosity and justice toward others. 

Then Jesus reaffirms Zacchaeus’ place at the communal table of God’s people.  “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”  We see that it is love that allows Jesus to reach out to those beyond the bounded-set standards of righteousness without fear of compromising his message.   Jesus is free to meet a Samaritan woman with a terrible track record in relationships.  A woman from a despised class of people is included at the table in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus is free to invite himself to the home of a wealthy lost son of Abraham.  This same Jesus is present at our tables.  He is able to radically transform our stories in such a way that we are able to embody the same love that Jesus did.   

May we hear and see Jesus in our midst and may we trust the gracious invitation to come to the table where he is present.  The table where he is extending radical grace to all who are hungry.  May Jesus himself be bread and drink for our journey.  Here at Strasburg Mennonite Church, at Sunnyside Mennonite Church, in Lancaster Mennonite Conference and throughout the body of Christ.

 AMEN.     

Invitation to reflection, listening posture, what the Spirit is saying.  Describe what the opportunity to respond will look like tomorrow.  Four stations:

1.  Confession:  papers, writing utensils, urn to confess where we have missed Jesus at table, where we have placed our individual and congregational (tribal) stories at the center and contributed to the pattern of brokenness in the church and in the world.

2.  Dirt:  reminds us that we are earthy like Peter.  That even though we have good intentions and want to get it right, we fail…we betray Jesus…  Dirt reminds us that we are from dust, that we are weak.  That we need the Spirit (ruach-breath) of God to breathe life into our tired living.  Dirt also speaks to the goodness of creation that we offer up to God as worship.  Dirt reminds us that the spiritual and physical must come together–that renewal needs to be expressed in our physical life.

3.  Water:  to remember our baptism…to reaffirm our baptismal identity which calls us to center our personal and tribal stories in God’s Story.  Baptism calls us to humility and mutual submission in the body of Christ.  Our baptism call us to express our oneness in Christ across differences, to stay in relationship even when we disagree about boundaries. 

4.  Oil:  annointing for healing and for empowerment to walk in the way of Jesus, to live into the mystery of the resurrection, to express love which calls us to meet Jesus at tables with others beyond our community.

All Saints Day…

We will observe All Saint’s Day on Sunday, Nov. 1 (although I will be speaking at Strasburg Mennonite Church for Renewal Meetings). During our worship service we will remember our loved ones whose faith in Christ has given us encouragement.  Jean and Rachel will be creating an altar space which contains photos or remembrances of departed family and friends that have been brought by members of our community.

This practice seems foreign, perhaps even questionable for those of us who have grown up in an expression of faith that did not talk much about the Communion of Saints.  So what basis is there for entering this unfamiliar tradition?  Much could be said, but let me just offer a few brief thoughts. 

What does Scripture say about saints?

 
And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?  He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”  Mark 12:26-27

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.  And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.  Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.  Matthew 17:1-3

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.  Ephesians 6:18

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…  Hebrews 12:1

When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.  Revelation 5:8

The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of the saints, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had  poured them out.   Revelation 8:4
 
Our Worship
Some of the hymns we sing reflect the reality that the Church is a communion of saints that transcends space and time limitations.  O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (Charles Wesley) is one that readily comes to mind.  One of the verses of that song uncovers the reality that Jesus has conquered death, so that the body of Christ is not limited to those of us who offer glory, praise and love from “below”:

To God all glory, praise, and love
Be now and ever given
By saints below and saints above
The Church in earth and heaven.
 
History
Christians have been honoring saints and martyrs since at least the second century AD. The Martyrdom of Polycarp, probably written near the middle of the second century, attests to this reality:

Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more pure than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, so that when being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already finished their course, and for the exercising and preparation of those yet to walk in their steps (18).

As SMC attempts to uncover this reality which Scripture and the Church point to, the opportunity to bring photos and remembrances of loved ones who have been an encouragement to our faith is one way this is being expressed. 

The Church is an incarnational reality.  It is also a mystery.  There is so much about faith and the story uncovered in the biblical text that defies the categories and ways of knowing of modern rationalism.  A simplistic literal reading of text (as independent individuals or enlightened gods) will not allow us to hear the Communal witness which invites us into relationship with God and each other. 

All Saints Day is an opportunity to see ourselves within this beloved community of faith, hope and love.  This tradition reminds us that we are not just an independent Community gathering in this space and time around the Words our little group can agree to.  Our Faith and relationship with the body of Christ is much deeper and stronger than uniformity mediated by reason and words.  We are invited into the Divine Community of Love that is embodied, but also not limited to reason, time and space.  It is a question of what communal witness we trust and place ourselves within.  It is a question of how we make room for mystery. 

Like the story of beginnings found in Genesis, like the bread and wine table blessing of Abram by Melchizedek-the priest of God (Gen. 14), like the story of God taking up residence in the womb of a girl as a fetus, like the story of the empty tomb, the Emmaus road…like so many other stories of our faith, we hold this one with a sense of mystery and awe.  We hold it and we say Magnificent. 

Magnificent
Oh, oh, magnificent

I was born, I was born
To be with you in this space and time
After that and ever after
I haven’t had a clue only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue, oh, oh

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

I was born, I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice from the womb
My first cry, it was a joyful noise, oh, oh

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar
Justified, till we die you and I will magnify, oh, oh
Magnificent, magnificent, oh, oh

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love unites our hearts
Justified, till we die you and I will magnify, oh, oh
Magnificent, magnificent, magnificent

The story of leaves…

The story of leaves is an ancient script

written on earth’s parchment

in blazing colors

telling the timeless organic truth

 that the glorious  brilliance of fall foliage

(more Pollack than Serat)

is also preparation for death

 

leaves

and mortal adam—dust being

who Rises and builds greatness and beauty

must detach and let go

 

This story is also told

by stones and bones at

Giza pyramids, Coliseum, Acropolis

the abandoned Stuckey’s along I-70

in Illinois

 

Leaves and stones

whisper a truth into the human soul

also named by the writer

of Ecclesiastes

 that nothing can possess the meaning

reached for…named

 Glory and Power give way to

Decadence and Hubris

 

It has been so again and again…

Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian

Greek, Roman, Visagothic

Spanish, English, American

dream

 

The dream of illusory

power and meaning

(played out by human actors

wearing masks of eschatalogical gravitas

mixed with electric compulsions)

falls to the ground

 

And so I thank God for autumn leaves

eternal icon in earth’s temple

sacrament of wisdom

uncovering the reality

of Sein und Zeit

 

time to go rake

 

Cultivating Communities of Faith, Hope and Love…

Faith, hope and love.  These are gifts that emerge out of the biblical story.  These are the gifts which sustain community. Words, stories, community.  God’s story, composting in the soil under our bare feet, cultivating our journey into the beloved community.

In the biblical creation story, God speaks and moves. Without a prototype or patent–light, darkness, water, earth, plants, trees, sun, moon, stars, beasts and sea creatures–an explosion of life and symbiotic systems breathing. 

God breathes into dust (adam).  Humanity inhales.  Spirit, oxygen.  Exhales carbon dioxide.  Earth inhales.  Photosynthesis.  Life.  A seamless symbiosis of creature and creation.   Molecules and energy…being and time.  Imago dei.  Genetic fingerprints of divine handiwork.  Spirit and matter.  It is good.  

Without explanation, chronos and telos merge.  Order and chaos.  The tick tock of time within eternity .  

Agriculture, biology, linguistics, political science, theology…this was the curriculum in that first semester of human existence.   God moves humans into their new home and hands out the syllabus:  tend the garden, name the genus and species of things, know and be known, freedom is a gift that can turn sour.  Existence brings the possibility of good and evil. 

In the garden story we see our own story.  It is the human story.  We see beauty and ugliness within and without.  Eviction. Restorative justice.  Garden existense has proven difficult.  The freedom to exist has produced much pain.  We do our own thing.  We hurt others.  We hurt ourselves.  We run.  We hide.  Things are not as they should be.  

 

Sometimes.  As we are tilling the field of our own discontent.  Something emerges…sprouts out of the rubble of weakness and shame.  A tenuous sprout.  Growing among the earthen shards ancient and new.   Faith.  Hope.  Love.  Seeds must die.  Manure is good fertilizer.  Don’t plant too early.   The frost will get them.  Thatch and straw are good protective cover.   

Love.  A seed of redemption and liberation planted into the soil of human history.  In the womb of the young girl, God becomes a fetus.  Organic fusion of time and eternity.  God and the human condition.  Creator, as it turns out, is also Lover.  Redeemer.  Cosmos is loved and pursued.   Humanity becomes a grain of wheat.  Scattered and gathered. Crushed to make flour.  Bread.  

Jesus comes to us as he talks with a Samaritan woman at a well. As he invites himself to the home of a tree-climbing tax-collector–a son of Abraham.  Jesus comes to us on a donkey in the public square. At table in an upper room. Jesus stoops to wash our feet. We are self-conscious. Our feet have stepped in some messy places. They are ugly. Jesus washes.  

Jesus comes to us on a cross, in a tomb. He comes to us on a road where we walk deep in conversation with many doubts and questions. We don’t recognize him.

Jesus comes to us in the naked and poor, the prisoner, the depressed, the abused.  We don’t recognize him.

Jesus comes to us in the changing seasons that produce a bumper crop of grapes.  Crushed and fermented.  Wine.  Jesus comes to us in the bread and cup.  The bread of Life.  The cup of salvation.  The communal meal.  Feeding our hunger.  Nourishing the community of  Faith, Hope and Love.

the beloved community

what is your name
where are you from
what is your story

will you listen
to my story?

will you listen
or do you think
you already know the truth
of who I am
and how my story does
or does not fit with
your story

as you listen
will you take me as you find me
even as I do the same for you
and what will we do about
our differences

as you listen
will you make room for my questions
or will you seek to define me
interpret me through your
experience and presuppositions
sure that your words and categories
are sufficient to explain
the world of my life
fully, no mystery

will you
looking at me
see yourself
and the possibility
of mercy
triumphing over
judgment

will you recognize
the imago dei
within the broken eikon
in me
in you

and seeing…
will you still trust
the fragile possibility
of knowing and being known
in the beloved
community

Be who you are…

As you go off to school this morning
I see your middle-school wings spreading
and I want to tell you
be who you are
as you are becoming

As the sun rises on another day
of books, lockers, lessons
and teachers who will see
your potential and mold it
be who you are
as you are becoming

As you laugh with friends at table
and take the home-made sandwich
and sliced fresh peach from
your technicolor lunch sack
be who you are
as you are becoming

As you step off the yellow bus
and return home to rice pudding snack
couch vegetation, chores
homework and flute
be who you are
as you are becoming

And as you are becoming
know that I marvel
at the beautiful
mystery
of you

Receding summer…

A standing ovation for summer
with its buttery corn on the cob
sauteed zuchini squash suppers

A thunderous applause
for freshly sliced yellow
and red beefsteak tomatos
bathing in vinegary sweet
cucumber salad

A heartfelt yawp
for salsa colors
framed in Mason jars
popped and sealed
a family production

A euphoric yes
for verdant goodness
even as the tasks of the day
and the crisp morning air
foreshadow a turning
a diminuendo

See the children off to school
Take down the garden fence
Clear the beds
Buy peaches for canning

A reverent pause
to contemplate the liminal space
of changing seasons
the opus dei of earth
contained yet uncontainable
in this moment
this life

When you were nine

This is to remember
that when you were nine

you reeled in two smallmouth bass
hooked to the same crayfish lure
the early fog still hovered as you
reached for the line and brought
the shimerring green fish
into our canoe

this is to remember
that when you were nine

you specialized in the art
of custom-fitting bicycles
in our neighborhood with
a plastic bottle against the spokes
noisemaker

this is to remember
that when you were nine

you were already
the perfect expression
of you

God’s Facebook status

In the beginning the earth was formless and void
And God’s Facebook status had not changed in years
Then dust became a soothing sip
of coffee on the way
to build the great civilization
or at least work the status angle
within the ant colony enterprise
of my language world

Then…unto us a child is born
into the squalid slums I don’t pass
on the road into my dreams
God’s Facebook status changes to
indwelling the human condition
and I receive him not
on the flat screen that pulses plasma colors
into the living room of my consciousness
bringing freedom and justice for all

At that moment the cock crowed
I hit the snooze and
went back to sleep
living the dream of God helps
those who help themselves
to a second helping of apple pie

But tomorrow is another day and
God’s Facebook status should change again
when the sun rises on
the lilies of the field
in my backyard