The pastor knitted imagery
that didn’t quite go together
a bit incongruous, a bit
distinct
images of the word,
“uncomfortable”
of Scrooge, of the Grinch, a
marriage
in trouble, a depressed
elder,
waiting for death, alone,
feeling unworthy of
Communion,
lamenting the ills of this
world,
this time and place.
Musing on the image of John
standing hot and dirty
in the murky water, in camel
hair,
cinched tight to his body,
eating locust, uncomfortable
purity;
Preaching an uncomfortable
word
in the hot desert, the
wilderness
fulfilling the prophecy for
his own life
the prophecy of the coming
of the child to ministry, to
kingship,
of a very different kind of
reign,
Finding hope, repentance,
saving,
baptism, not so much in the
dirty water itself
but in the place, the
Jordan,
finding hope too in the
frank words
the honesty of the man in
the nursing home
the hope in the name of
Scrooge, Ebenezer,
the stone that Samuel placed
in God’s provision, His
saving of the people
long before even Isaiah’s prophecy
of the time that was to
come.
Hope for a different future
in uncomfortable wrappers,
foreshadowing the problem
of comprehending Jesus, and
his message
in society’s eyes, the eyes
of the people
even to this day, in this
moment
so different from our world
our wisdom, our
comprehension
standing in the Jordan,
watching Ebenezer
hope that we will change
in our time in this desert.
---------------------
edited July 23, 2019
Uncomfortable Imagery – v2
December 10, 2007
Uncomfortable Imagery
Based on Matthew 3:1-6 and Matthew 3:11-12
and the sermon “God’s Powerful Promise”,
by the Reverend Peter Hey, December 9, 2007,
Wesley United Methodist Church, Concord, NH
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