Shalom is Slain
O’ for the worlds that lay asunder,
for the shalom that is slain.
We ingrain habits of unrest,
we fester and pass on spoil.
O’ for the earth to break,
for all to be made anew.
For the habits in my heart to pour out,
and for living waters to ensue.
God this world is broken,
we are altogether damaged and damned.
“Destroy the destroyers of the earth,”
destroy what in me destroys.
Shalom was slain
but through the slain Messiah (is/will be) renewed.
O’ God, Maranatha!
“Where are you?”
“Where are you?”
In the muck and mire.
“Where are you?”
Setting the world on fire.
Wrapped with the serpent.
Damning Eden.
Covering beauty in foliage and the land with shame.
“Where are you?”
I have yet to know.
It is dark. But I love it.
It is dark. I can hide.
(“Pleasures untold await”) I’ll just hide and hear “where are you?”
I’m in the muck and the mire. I’m in the filth I’ve created. I’ll stay here. I’ll wade in pain.
I’ll close my eyes. Shut up my mind. I’ll shut out any glimmer of grace and light.
Night, night; I’m free. Free to walk. Free to stumble. Free from the sun, from the light. O’ night!
“Where are you, Adam?”
“You were in Eden.”
The Life for our life
damp, dark, cold, and silent
enveloped in a shroud in the earth
the Life lay lifeless
the only thing that truly is,
is not?
the Life lay lifeless?
the Immortal Infinite slain?
damp, dark, cold, and silent
from life’s surmise
but from a different gaze
outside of life’s maze
Life lay not lifeless
but death is now dead
defeated!
in violence He brought victory!
enveloped in mystery
the great God of history
was slain, for you, for me
the foil was sprang
it brought Him great pain
our sin is the hand that bore it
yet He took our blame
to purchase our name
He bore the frame of our cross
through vile, the victory
in wrote woe, to wonder
What is so good about Good Friday?
Jesus was crucified on Friday. Good Friday is the day we remember Jesus’ death.
So, what is so good about Good Friday? It almost seems sick to call Good Friday good. If you have a loved one that died you do not celebrate the anniversary of that persons death as good, it was tragic. Why then when referring to the anniversary of Jesus’ death do we call it good? That almost seems sacrilegious.
We call it Good Friday because it truly is good. No, we do not celebrate Jesus’ death per se. Rather we celebrate all that His death accomplished. We celebrate that though He died, and died a terrible death, He said “It is finished,” and it was. We celebrate because He rose victorious over sin and death.
Jesus laid down His life for us to be the wrath absorbing sacrifice. He did this and many more things and that is why the anniversary of Jesus’s death can be said to be good. Actually, in some sense, because Jesus died and conquered death and sin the anniversary of our loved ones death who are in Christ can now be thought of with joy. It too can become a good anniversary.
I want to encourage you to meditate on what Jesus did for you. Think about the cross where Jesus bore the wrath of God that we deserved. I encourage you to read the narrative accounts in the Gospels. When you read it remember who it is that is being mocked, flogged, and crucified. Remember why it is that He suffered in that way and felt the wrath of God; it was not anything that He had done.
Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and be amazed at how precisely it describes both the events of the crucifixion and the reason for the crucifixion and this around 700 years before Jesus was born. Jesus was crushed for our sins (Is. 53:5) and thus makes many to be accounted righteous (v. 11), for example. After reading this passage, I composed this attempt at poetry:
Bound by sins darkened glow
In this world of pain and woe
Helpless, hopeless to us He came
And in the midst was slain
Darkest night, the Light extinguished
Will we forever captives be?
Messiah’s mission ends in death?
Where’s the hope of life and peace?
But by power He awaketh
All of death He did breakth
By His death, deaths defeated
Sins depleted of its power
Thus the hour of unrest
Has become our hope, our joy, our rest
For in Christ’s death,
Deaths defeated!
Yes, He burst the bonds that bound Him
And leads many captives in His wake
Yes, from the cross He is victorious
And all of heaven hails He’s glorious!
The World She Whispers (spoken word)
So here’s my first attempt at spoken word…
Slave.
Addiction, the affliction we embrace. Drowning in more, yet never full, we consume the poison.
Freedom from the substance, freedom from the porn, is what we yearn, yet ever embrace our shackles.
Numbing ecstasy, this misery. Bound by this high, damaged by this drink.
Party or prison, this prism through which we peer.
Addiction, this affliction, for which we ever yearn. We burn, burn out, and repeat the syndrome.
No end in sight, all is night, an endless cycle down.
Yes, dirt and sand is all this land, as we thirst for peace and joy. An empty well is where we dwell, no thirst is quenched below.
But as I gaze upon Your grave, where for me You bled, my shackles brake and to You take rest from all this hell. Slave to sin, never again; You my Master alone.
Yet why do I embrace this noose that holds me?
Lord, why do I run to a whore when I know all she has in store for me is death?
I see the light, the joy, and close my eyes, and turn away.
Why don’t I stay?
I run to the slaughter but You’ve prepared a feast. I slit my wrist, when for me You bled.
O’ the misery that is me, when I turn away.
Why don’t I stay?
You quench my thirst, all else is empty wells.
Why swallow up this gravel, when You have abounding streams?
O’ the misery that is me, apart from You.
Eternity in our Hearts
We have eternity in our hearts.
We cry out like two daughters: Give and Give.
The fire of our soul won’t be quenched or squelched.
It burns on,
consumes all,
and is left
empty.
Empty abyss,
blank, black hole.
We suck in stars, oceans, all;
and yet repine.
Yes, my soul’s an arid land.
An empty dry sponge.
It sucks up all it can,
yet remains coarse and craving.
My soul’s a vacuum
that won’t be filled.
All is engulfed,
yet I’m left empty.
We have eternity in our hearts
and can only be filled with the Eternal
We have an infinite longing
that is only meant by the Infinite.
Our cavernous soul is only filled
by the LORD.
We can only be sated
by our Savior.
Our repining will finally wane
when we stand on heaven’s plane.
Our soul’s fallowed ground
will burst with new life.
Our bottomless shaft
will abound in streams of joy.
Cosmic Christmas
Long of old
the Scriptures told
of a King who’d come.
In His wake
death shall quake
and the deserts they shall bloom.
Yes, creation creator collide
yet we did not hide
for God He brought no wrath,
there was no blood bath,
the world did not implode or explode into non-being.
Instead, angelic greeting:
“Peace on the earth,
goodwill to men”
because the Great I AM is come.
Our Lord, Messiah, Savior in a crib.
Wonderful Counselor,
Prince of Peace,
Bright and Morning Star,
born.
He who lay the foundations of the earth,
laid in a manger.
The Infinite born,
a swaddled babe.
He that holds the nations in His hand,
grasps His mother’s hand.
He that calls the stars by name,
spoke no name, nor word.
Wonder see!
the Omnipresent crawl!
He formed Himself
in His mother’s womb.
He upheld the nails
that held His hands.
He died for you,
for me.
He became poor
to restore our riches.
Yes, He felt our plight
to set all things right.
He was born to die,
that we might live.
The Deity
incarnate brings
salvation in His wings.
From incarnation,
liberation;
new life has been set free!
The hypostatic union
brings communion;
the LORD walks with man.
Man once again will be in the Garden
because God’s Son walked from Gethsemane.
Satan’s role has been revoked,
the Lord Messiah come.
The demons tremble in His wake;
the blind see,
creation glimmers,
soon the groaning’s seize.
This is the time in between,
the already and not yet.
The Kingdom has come, but not consummated;
it shall be slightly belated.
Peace on the earth,
goodwill to man,
God’s eternal plan in fruition.
The Kingdom has come in God’s Son,
the lion to lay down with the lamb.
Satan and his host defeated,
all their power to be depleted,
they won’t sleep, but feel the wrath of the Lamb.
The immaterial
infused material;
God in the flesh behold!
No tent or temple,
for the LORD tabernacled.
Yahweh is Messiah.
The Offspring Madonna bears
shall wipe all tears
and crush the serpent’s head.
Every fear and tear to be forgotten
in the splendor of our joy.
The beatific vision brings
life and joy in its wings;
for when we see Him, we shall be like Him.
Immanuel,
born the balm,
for the vacuum of our souls.
The myth came true in the manger.[1]
God is no longer a stranger,
but makes Himself known in His Son.
Jesus, Joshua’s namesake, true!
The LORD our Savior come!
He was, and is, and is to come.
All things consummate(d) in Him.
Amen.
____________
I use myth in the sense that C. S. Lewis used it.
An Anthology of New Creation
The place is forsaken,
the populous city deserted. (Is. 32:14a cf. 2:11; 5:21)
In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places, there will be desolation.
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
though you sow and toil,
yet the harvest will flee away
in a day of grief and incurable pain. (Is. 17:9-10 contrast Ezek. 47:1-12)
Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field. (Is. 32:15a)
Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. (Is. 32:16, 17, 18a)
The nations shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore. (Is. 2:2 cf. v. 3b, 4)
In that day the LORD will say, “Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” (Is. 19:25 cf. vv. 21-25)
The LORD will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the LORD has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for Him;
let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” (Is. 25:8-9)
For the LORD comforts Zion;
He comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the LORD;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song. (Is. 51:3)
Our Messiah brings good news to the poor,
binds up the brokenhearted
the Anointed proclaims liberty to the captives,
opens the prison to those who are bound
He gives beautiful headdress instead of ashes
the oil of gladness instead of mourning
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. (Is. 61:1-4)
“For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in My people;
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress. (Is. 65:17-19 cf. 4:2-6)
There shall be no more a brier to prick or thorn to hurt. (Ezek. 28:24a)
Before My people call I will answer;
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all My holy mountain. (Is. 65:24-25)
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the LORD delights in you,
and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you. (Is. 62:3-5)
Zion’s righteousness goes forth as brightness,
And her salvation as a burning torch. (Is. 62:1)
The name of the city from this time on shall be, “The LORD Is There.” (Is. 48:35)
For, the LORD is King. (cf. Is. 33:22)
The government shall be upon His shoulders,
and His name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over His kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (Is. 9:6-7 cf. 42:1-4)
Every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance. (Is. 45:23 cf. 49:7; 66:23)
You shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. (Is. 60:16)
Our LORD says,
“Come, everyone who thirsts.” (Is. 55:1a)
in X 