A moment for reflection based on Lent and Easter acrostics.
The first two acrostics look at Lent from two perspectives. It may be good to give up something for Lent, but perhaps it’s even better to reaffirm and do something positive…
Love led Him to inhabit that wilderness of thirst
Empowered by the Spirit as Satan did his worst.
Now is the time to reaffirm our accord
To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with the Lord.
Let’s not go around with long Lenten faces –
Engage positively with pilgrims these forty shared days.
No negatives, no sackcloth, just Spirit-filled places –
Tell the Tempter you’re tired of his mean, joyless ways.
Palm Sunday reflection. If you want to reflect further on this theme, you might be interested in a recent post from fellow WordPress blogger “Like an Anchor” – don’t be something Jesus would throw out of His Father’s temple
People pack the streets to hail their Messiah
Adversaries keep their distance, out of the way,
Lying in the wings they plot and conspire,
Mobs are fickle, not too difficult to sway.
Scattered with palms, the way is strewed,
Upon the colt of an ass, Jesus prays yet grieves.
Now Israel divides, leaders collude,
Daringly, Joseph of Arimathea believes.
A judgement awaits you, you vipers’ brood,
You who turned the temple into a den of thieves.
Reflection on Maundy Thursday, when Jesus gave his disciples a mandate (“Mandatum”) – to love each other and share bread and wine.
Meeting for Passover one final time,
A sacrifice awaiting a traitor’s crime,
Upstairs, far from the madding crowd,
Night wrapped you tight in its ink black shroud.
Dipping your matzah in the blood red wine
You became quick branches in the Saviour’s vine.
Take, eat of my body, drink of my blood
He commanded. How little you understood;
Uneasily, you let him wash your feet.
Remembrance, from now, would be bittersweet –
Suffering in joy, receiving in giving,
Death to self as a new way of living.
A final command, ever old and ever new –
You were to love one another as He had loved you.
Reflection on Good Friday.
Golgotha was a wretched place that day.
One passer-by had helped Him bear the cross,
Others had succoured Him on the way,
Despairing that their victory had turned to loss.
Flogged, mocked, spat upon, betrayed
Rejected, stripped, despised, disowned thrice –
In between thieves he hung. One, unafraid,
Deprecated Him for His futile sacrifice,
And the other, penitent, with whom Jesus prayed –
“You shall be with me this day in Paradise”.
Reflection on Easter
Even though the cross had staunched His breath,
And the tomb had set its seal on brutal death,
Sins of men yet stung in wounds still fresh,
The word no longer dwelt with us as flesh –
Even these could not prolong that darkest night.
Resurrected life kindled the world alight.
And not long after…
Every Sabbath they’d heard the age-old story
Many times the rabbi had read from Isaiah
Maybe this year, with great pomp and furore
Armies would arise, led by the Messiah.
Unwary, on the road, they encountered dirty glory
Suddenly the travellers’ hearts were set afire.
Religious routine rarely reaps reward,
Only through relationship can our walk begin
And when you first felt the presence of the risen Lord
Didn’t your heart strangely burn within?
Didymus, the twin, was not in the room
On the Sunday of the empty tomb.
Unless he witnessed flank and limb
Believing wasn’t an option for him.
Then the Lord returned, dispelling doubt:
In front of all, He pointed out
Nailmarks and the spear’s
Gash, recalling God-forsaken tears.
Thomas rarely grasped things first time round –
His doubt was real, his faith profound.
Overwhelmed, humbled he confessed
“My Lord and My God” – and then was blessed.
And the twin became a saint of steel:
Sincere doubts can make faith more real.
