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Last Words

 

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do

Here is love
caught between the powers of the world
and the breaking of heaven
on the long journey home
we do not know what it is we do
and the Last Word
forgives


Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise


Here is love
found between two thieves
crucified among the lost
and the Last Word turns
and promises paradise


Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother

Here is love
lonely on the cross
and with nothing left
the Last Word even now
brings together
mother and son


My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

Here is love
some gargoyle of grace
abandoned by heaven
and the Last Word breaks
with loneliness


I thirst

Here is love
and in the last moments of life
seeks solace
and the Last Word
in the final moment
yet appeals to humanity


It is finished

Here is love
and here what it is like
when every hope
comes to an end
and the Last Word
is finished


Father, into our hands I commit my spirit

Here is love
clinging
to one last hope
that not everything is lost
and the last word
dies

Encounter (words that were been added to each day as we told the stories of those gathering towards the cross)

Here the shadow-line curves towards the cross
and the dust
shapes our footprints
which hold the stories
of all those who travel this way
daring to follow
beyond the questions
and towards a truth
that is restless with the way things are
where death seals tombs
and bandages wrap the dead

this is not how it might be
there is more to wonder at
than Lazarus breaking free
and a Saviour weeping

there is more to Judas
than forcing the hand of heaven
and paying his way to hell

there is more to the Galilean
than hand-washing can get rid of

there is more set free
in broken bread than crumbs
and more to the spilling of wine
than blood stains

there is more
surely
there must be more
can we believe now
there is any more

and in such a place
we wonder
what miracle is yet to be?

Encounter is space
where the story of God
finds voice in the characters
we have met on the way
and meet again here
in the shadow of the Galilean
who shapes this week
with a love whose hand
will not be forced
by those who push the kingdom
into being
Judas’ ambition for freedom
is well meant
but it’s cost rises from
30 pieces
to a cross
and the kingdom
shifts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Litany of hope/prayer

Voice 1:
Wrong hope/right hope: I hope in the revolution of angel armies that will clear the Romans and set Israel free.

I hope in the downfall of the powers that bind up the truth and the powers that set that truth free.

I hope in the end of the authority that keeps heaven out and in a heaven that is ready to break free.


Voice 2: Wrong hope/right hope: the kiss
Voice 1: the cross
Voice 2: the trial
Voice 1: the cup
Voice 2: the garden
Voice 1: the betrayal
Voice 2: the night
Voice 1: the shadows


Voice 2:
Wrong hope/right hope: I hope to push Jesus into revolution and heaven to join the fray

I hope to buy the moment heaven has to make a choice


Voice 1:

Wrong hope/right hope: I hope heaven knows what it is doing

I hope Jesus knows what is happening

I hope the light knows how dark the darkness is

I hope love knows how to die

I hope death knows love is dying

I hope, rightly or wrongly, this week we see heaven play its role
 

Prayer

 

In this encounter O God
where death meets life
and fresh air floods the stench of the tomb
where you weep
and silence falls,
in this encounter
may we seek the life
and in those places beyond words
hear the rumour
of what is yet to come

May we place here
those half said words
those questions
that have not sought an answer
those things left unsaid
and lie uncompleted
among those who have gone
and dare you
somehow
to breathe life
into what seems bound up

In this encounter
may we be set free
to believe
beyond what we expect
or have yet known
and from places
shaped by the dying of the light
trust
this is not all there will be
the light shall be unbound from the darkness
and we will travel by faith
from this tomb
to another
and weep there too
and will a greater miracle
that we have yet seen

We know it grows darker
we know the shadows lengthen
we hear the rumours more loudly now
so may
dare this love
to be our companion
on the way ahead
 

Holy Ground

 

Take off your shoes. This is holy ground.
Not for Pilate for still he cannot see.
But holy enough for those already fallen, the Moses’ of this world
who know holy ground when they see it
is scattered with the detritus of living
of shoes ripped and torn from taking wrong directions
shoes so misshapen by selfishness no one else can walk in
shoes that have been left behind for they are fit for the journey no longer.
Holy ground is a messy place
of failed journeys and broken dreams
but Plate’s ground was washed clean
leaving no evidence of change
what kind of un-holiness was this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Week

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