homegroup

potluck community
subversive cell
plotting a spritual coup d'etat
obliteration of obligatory ritual
overturning generations of tradition
conspiring to disrupt family dynamics
envisioning mass exodus
the destruction of dominant paradigms
and maybe coffee

April 06

evangelism

beauty is a lover
and fear a master

how do you entice a people?
with warning labels
or poetry?
with a funeral pyre
or candles?
with burning flesh
or an imsomniac passion?
with nightmares
or reveries?
with rules
or invitations?
with beatings
or caresses?
with a murky future
or a redeemed present?

declare the demise
of the fast
set the table
empty the streets
fill the hall
for the love feast
begins now.

March 06

jabez

another adulterous generation
disciples of a dangerous dogma
reckless religion
spiritless scheme
churning out dough
with bad yeast
handing out millstones
and missing the key:
I blessed his land
because it was mine to bless
not because of what he asked
or how he asked
but who he asked

there is a green pasture
with your name on it
I will make you lie down
whether you own it or not

delight yourself in me
and I will give
the desires of your heart
that is
the desires will come from me
the apologetics of prosperity
are your words
not mine

beware the fires of Heaven
purity is painful 

you will never
prove my favor
by what you have
but you will
prove your worth
by how you spend it

April 06

wholetruth

time has gone
for hellbent halftruths
time has come
for whole truth
to learn the Way
to leave the detour
to refresh with new familiar fragrance
to unlearn the smell of fear
to taste what is good
to let the poison speak for itself
to see with new eyes
to stop gouging them out
to raise holy hands
to put the hacksaws down
to hear the call of love
to unrecognize the vocabulary of hatred
to quit beating breasts
to give those bruised hearts away

time has come-
and is passing-
to stop recruiting from hell
to launch a campaignless
agenda-free
shamless
unrepentant
wide-open
unpostured
love-in
to live
the most excellent way

March 06

surprise

determined to despair
traced my steps back
to every trapdoor
I ever used
every familiar escape hatch
my heartless penance
on the nightstand
the timeworn words of repentence
waiting like a lifeless creed
I long since lost belief in
but you hunted me
cornered me in my usual hiding place
turned the light in my face
made me talk
spill my guts
empty myself
what solace in honesty
even as I betrayed my misgivings
you bolstered me
and rendered my doubts
groundless

I emerged from my cellar
not lower
not mired in misery
not imprisoned in halfhearted self-pity
not lower
but deeper
not sunk
but blessedly lower than that
I talked my way to where I was
and found you
to my great joyful dismay
waiting for me
perched on the very conclusion
I had been terrified to name
and in finding you
my terror lost its power
fled
and relief filled the void
caught again in your trusty grasp
I thought my burdens
too heavy this time
but your very presence
rendered them weightless

so now I soar
ready to spill over
poised to shock
someone with grace
as you have
once again
shocked me.

February 06