Showing posts with label Good Shepherd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Good Shepherd. Show all posts

Friday, April 28, 2023

Everness



Inspired by Psalm 23.

When healing oil was needed
   for the wounds within my soul,
When battered raw and bleeding,
   I needed to be whole.
When enemies surrounded me,
   and all I knew was fear,
My Shepherd came and found me,
   and whispered, “I am here.”

He lifts me on His shoulders
   and laughs in fear's face,
He carries me through danger,
   and all I know is Grace.
Then gently puts me down again
   though enemies abound,
He tells me I am dear to Him,
   for I'm the sheep He found!

He leads me to green pastures
   and rests me by cool streams,
He lays a table for me
   within my darkest dreams.
The nourishment is such
   that when it's time to follow on,
I gladly face tomorrow,
   for all my fears are gone.

So when I cannot thank Him
   for all that's comes to pass,
I'll feast within the wilderness
   and wait for greener grass.
When I can't praise for what's been done,
   I'll lift my voice out loud
And praise my Lord for who He is
   “in” what He has allowed!

Praise who He is, my Shepherd dear,
   who gave His life for me,
Who's led and fed and raised the dead
   to live in Victory!
Whose rod and staff have saved me,
   from all my sinfulness,
He'll wipe the tear, be ever near,
   in Glory's Everness.

--Jill Briscoe, from Telling the Truth website, 2017.

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

The 23rd Psalm, today



The Holy One is my Shepherd;
   there is nothing else I need or lack.
In verdant fields God urges my rest,
   by clear, sweet waters God leads me.

You refresh and revive my soul,
   and are my guide to holy pathways
   that I may glorify Your NAME in each step.

Even if evil and death overshadow me
   and the walls of the deepest valley tower over me,
no fear of evil shall overtake me;
   for You are my companion alongside me always;
   Your rod and staff are ever between me and danger,
      and I am comforted and at peace.

In the face of those who seek my harm
   You prepare a feast;
You have marked me as holy and beloved,
   and have filled my cup to overflowing.

The sureness of Your goodness and mercy
   is the foundation and lodestar of my life,
and my home is with You in each moment,
   and eternally.

--Leslie Barnes Scoopmire, May 4, 2022

Saturday, March 13, 2021

On Liturgy



Fear not, little flock.

—Luke 12:32

When he likened us to a flock
he certainly meant sheep
but this morning from the back pew
of a building, stone and chancelled, nothing like
the over lit, shag carpet church of my childhood,
here amid arch and echo I think
we are a flock of birds—
starlings gathering in their murmuration.
The pensive organ, the hushed
chatter now dips, now crests, and at the bells
we all together fold to silence,
as when the helixing black cloud drops
down to feed across a reed bed.
All at once the stillness breaks
into a great applause of wings, the mounting up
in doxology, the downsweep then
of many heads in prayer. How
strange, how ominous almost
for one on the ground to watch
this cluster heave itself
heavenward, obeying powers
invisible as magnetism,
forming and reforming in the shape
of something too large to be likened.

--Jennifer Polson Peterson, poet and teacher, from Image Journal



Photo:  Murmuration of starlings over Lough Ennell, March 4, 2021, by James Crombie and Colin Hogg. Story of the image is found here.

The scripture reference is used in Proper 14C.