Transformative Knowledge

 

The opening of the poem The Agony by George Herbert speaks of the modern way of knowing: the rational scientific mode (“philosophers” = natural philosophers). Herbert says there is so much more to take into account; there is so much more to knowing. He seeks to balance, heal and re-inform our ways of knowing. To radically transform our ways of knowing, Herbert invites us to turn to Christ at the intersection of sin and love – Christ’s Passion.

Closer to home, have you noticed that churches have ways of presenting sin and love? There are churches that speak about sin and damnation. They are ready to point out sin and make love conditional. And, there are churches that speak of unconditional love and inclusion while making sin conditional. Herbert reminds us that transcendent love can only be fully understood when we come to a knowledge of our sin and the meaning of cross.

 

The Agony

Philosophers have measur’d mountains,
Fathom’d the depths of the seas, of states, and kings,
Walk’d with a staff to heav’n, and traced fountains:
But there are two vast, spacious things,
The which to measure it doth more behove:
Yet few there are that sound them; Sin and Love.

Who would know Sin, let him repair
Unto mount Olivet; there shall he see
A man so wrung with pains, that all his hair,
His skin, his garments bloody be.
Sin is that press and vice, which forceth pain
To hunt his cruel food through ev’ry vein.

Who knows not Love, let him assay
And taste that juice, which on the cross a pike
Did set again abroach, then let him say
If ever he did taste the like.
Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.

Breaking News

Breaking News

By Jennifer Ann Johnson

 

Against a backdrop—indigo and star,

Luminous angels appear before men,

Ancient Wisdom they proclaim near and far,

To shepherds and sheep, to earth and heaven.

 

Luminous angels appear before men,

On a Space-Time night with Tripartite accord,

To shepherds and sheep, to earth and heaven,

“A new and living way” with rights ignored.

 

On a Space-Time night with Tripartite accord,

Emmanuel lay swaddled, veiled in flesh,

“A new and living way” with rights ignored,

In the love of the Father, mankind refreshed.

 

Emmanuel lay swaddled, veiled in flesh,

The babe’s short gasp rouses the dry bones of men,

In the love of the Father, mankind refreshed,

“I, the Lord, will breathe my life into them.”

 

The babe’s short gasp rouses the dry bones of men,

Ancient Wisdom He proclaims near and far,

“I, the Lord, will breathe my life into them,

Like your backdrop—indigo and star.”

 

 

© Jennifer A. Johnson, 2017, All Rights Reserved

At 64

 

At 64,

The pages no longer turn at will,

The knees no longer salute,

The mind carries on

As if yesterday mattered,

As if tomorrow began anew.

 

At 64,

Worries takeover

As tomorrow encroaches;

Surmise sets

On what tomorrow will be.

 

At 64,

The sunrise still finds its setting,

After today sings its songs;

Tomorrow’s edge of existence

Creeps in to cut another day into cliché.

 

 

 

© Jennifer A. Johnson, 2017, All Rights Reserved

De profundis

 

De profundis

 

So, she leapt through each night, to each waking dream saying,

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for the multitude of my sins”

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for the multitude of my sins”

 “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for the multitude of my sins”

In the morning, she headed out the door saying,

“I commit this day to you, O Lord, and the works of my hands”

“I commit this day to you, O Lord, and the works of my hands”

“I commit this day to you, O Lord, and the works of my hands”

She fell asleep saying,

“Thank you, O Lord, for your lovingkindness and tender mercies”

“Thank you, O Lord, for your lovingkindness and tender mercies”

 “Thank you, O Lord, for your lovingkindness and tender mercies”

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

©Ann Johnson Kingdom Venturers

~~~~

Psalms 130. De profundis. OUT of the deep have I called unto thee, O LORD;  Lord, hear my voice. O let thine ears consider well  the voice of my complaint. If thou, LORD, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss,  O Lord, who may abide it?  For there is mercy with thee;  therefore shalt thou be feared.  I look for the LORD; my soul doth wait for him;  in his word is my trust.  My soul fleeth unto the Lord before the morning watch;  I say, before the morning watch.  O Israel, trust in the LORD; for with the LORD there is mercy,  and with him is plenteous redemption.  And he shall redeem Israel  from all his sins.

Elysium Laundromats

Elysium Laundromats  Laundromat

 

When you live alone

It all comes together

At the Laundromat.

 

Money-grubbing washers,

Flippant dryers,

Crossword puzzlers and

The carnival ride centrifuges waiting for my quarters.

 

The envoy of filth makes a “final” appearance,

Only to be immersed in the clean waters of

Anabaptism.

 

O, fountain of youth,

You left me alone and

Benched,

Among the churning kilns.

 

© Cindy Wity, 2015, All Rights Reserved

Je Suis la Vérité

 

What is truth?

The satirical stylus?

The severing sword?

The signet of supremacy?

 

What is truth?

A cartoon, a caliphate, a Caesar?

 

“What is truth?”

Pilate asked.

A “thing of this world”

French philosopher Foucalt answered.

A “regime” of beliefs and values linked to systems of political and economic power,

A scientific, non-universal apparatus feeding into majority opinions.

 

“So you are a king, are you?”

Pilate, the truth of power, asked.

Jesus, the power of truth, answered,

“You are the one who’s calling me a king. I was born for this;

I’ve come into the world for this: to give evidence about the truth.

Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

 

“Truth!” What’s that?”

Pilate asked, but

With those words, he went back to the Foucaltians.

 

Truth is witness. Jesus said,

“We testify to what we have seen and heard from God”

 

Put down your stylus Cartoonist,

Put down your sword, Peter,

Put down your signet Freedom of Speech

And follow me.

 

For,

Je suis le Chemin, la Vérité et la Vie.

 

~~~~~~~

Sacrificial Love

 

“Without entrusting oneself to the God who judges justly, it will hardly be possible to follow the crucified Messiah and refuse to retaliate when abused. The certainty of God’s just judgment at the end of history is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle of it. The divine system of judgment is not the flip side of the human reign of terror, but a necessary correlate of human nonviolence.”

 

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

~~~~~

Poem © SallyParadise.com, 2015, All Rights Reserved; Scripture quoted:  The Kingdom New Testament quotes by N. T. Wright as translated from koine greek.

Resurrection Doesn’t Stop There

white lilies

 

Heaven

 

Beyond “Imagine“,

There, You Are.

 

Before me

Unbound Substantive Reality, The Living Word

Lifted from gilded pages to eternity’s masthead: “Alpha and Omega.”

 

He now walks among us with beard and white gown,

A purple sash hides a pierced side,

He is the only Disfigured One among us,

The walking Redeemed.

 

He is Truth Unfiltered,

Full-Colored, not developed black and white,

Heaven’s Endless Searching Light,

Light once diffused and then restored,

Among prisms of white calla lilies.

 

Heaven,

A hope not disappointed, no longer dot-to-dot discovered, And,

A harvest, garnering displaced ones into

The dancing embrace of the Triune God:

“That where I am, there you may also be.”

 

Beyond “Imagine“,

Here I am ~ a harlot,

My redemption once hanging by a Scarlet Thread,

Now I’m dancing in the streets!

 

Holy, Holy, Holy. Trisagion.

 

Come, Lord Jesus.

 

 

© Sallyparadise.com, 2014, All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

 

White lilies from www.flowers-magazine.com

Are these real moments real? Friends.

Are these moments real?

Or, are my fleeting thoughts

The bowl to eat from?

 

I am alone, yet

Memories accompany me,

Then, they abandon me for higher ground?

 

Many days I wait for truth

Then truth comes, full fledged

I am unarmed. Tacit.

 

Help me Lord,

My knees are weak,

Weak from wrestling with faith’s strong arm.

 

Where are the friends I knew?

The friends who knew me no matter what?

The friends who knew the conjunction between me AND me?

Prison

Prison

Prison?

Walls shingled together, overlapping?

Bars with intervals of freedom?

A look In Someone’s eyes doubting me?

The slab of self under which I am interred?

Do I hold the keys before I enter

Prison?

© Sally Paradise, 2012, All Rights Reserved

The “American, You Can’t Handle Your Liberty” Rap

 

American, You Can’t Handle Your Liberty

 

American, you can’t handle your liberty,

Drunk with democracy you flirt with tyranny;

You whine and you cry about your life’s lot –

Not what the providential Constitution sought.

 

Our people are now lacking in self-government,

Living relativism that’s not heaven-sent,

Lacking all self-restraint, thinking they’re “free”,

They will tolerate anything but liberty.

 

Though free and equal, born with rights inalienable,

You whine and pine for freedom more palatable;

Unjust laws disguised as “social justice”,

Such religion of humanity does thwart us.

 

Myopic history sees the lie you so need,

“A People’s History…” makes bleeding hearts bleed;

Our nation’s true exceptional-ism,

In college taught as just cause for derision.

 

How are we the most generous nation on earth?

It is because of what our Founding Fathers birthed!

Take a look at the world around and see,

We as a nation donate most charitably.

 

Yet you squander democracy onto yourself,

While pure opportunity is put on the shelf,

Cradle to grave you whimper and pine,

“Hoping” and “Changing”, charging the taxpayer’s dime.

 

All men are created equal yet there are some,

With hubris bang the affirmative action drum,

And so betray our common good,

To play favoritism as any injustice would.

 

American, you can’t handle your liberty,

You want politicians to give you to what you please,

You clamor for “rights” thinking you’ll be free

While working the calculus of felicity.

 

Why is it that we fear our country’s liberty?

Because the rigors of responsibility,

We “Hope” and “Change” to be rid of the strife,

So we vote for someone who will pay for our life.

 

Wake up America and smell the flag burning,

Your “Hope” and “Change” are both lacking in discerning,

You whine and you pine and act all distraught,

While ever mocking what our Constitution taught.

 

© Sally Paradise, 2012, All Rights Reserved