Poems for Sunday, September 28, 2025
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, & Luke 16:19-31
The God of Promise After Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15. Destruction's clang surrounds me— all I want to do is lie down, give up. You invite me to hope once more? My clothes are heavy with thick dust. My mind is noisy with despair. They all turned away—no one listened. So my last act before declaring bankruptcy is to buy a field, and put the deed in a jar to outlast me. I might someday see Zion's sums, I might not. But as I do this, I feel held once more by the God of Promise. How strange: I can already taste the wine and hear the bees. --- (Consider Emily Dickinson's poem on hope) Hope by Emily Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers, That perches in the soul, And it sings the tune without words, And never stops at all. And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me. --- A Higher Calling After 1 Timothy 6:6-19 Things go wrong when my mind loses sight of eternity. My thoughts rush, my actions are groundless and in haste. Things are better when I look to God, the One who dwells in unapproachable light— I kneel in the Spring, I walk with reverence, and notice how every person matters. I don't want a life that is worried and hurried. I want the life that really is life. A higher calling awaits me. --- A Better Way After Luke 16:19-31 It is quite natural to seek out your own comfort; clothing, luxuries, and the like. I want a vintage VW bus and own fine guitars—three, to be precise. But think again, not about the world of today, but about a better way—the way of Jesus—the Word first glimpsed in Moses and prophets. What is this better way? I'm sure it will be quite upside down and quite right-side right.