A Poem a Sunday

Proper 15B/Ordinary 20B/Pentecost 13
August 19, 2018

St. John 6:51-58 - NRSV

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52 The Jews [religious leaders] then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

A Poem a Sunday

Pentecost 13 – B

Divine Indigestion

How disturbing

and outrageous

that Christ

come in

flesh

and

blood.

But

how else

to embody

the miracle

from above?

The way the Divine comes

is not to our liking

and indeed is very striking:

“Eat fresh flesh,

Drink blood with a ‘toast’.”

Divine indigestion

as we reject the Host.

This is a scandal

and seldom do we learn

offended by such language

we neglect to discern:

God gets under our skin

to disrupt and transform

but we remain the same

rather than be re-born.

It doesn’t just happen once

or at the snap of one’s fingers

but again and again

God’s presence lingers.

Disturb us, O God,

give us Divine indigestion.

Awaken us each day

to your interventions.

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