A reflection on the journey to 2010

by Bernard Thorogood

 

Care

I think of them, my sister and my brother,

caught up in long tragedy,

lost in a vast teeming city,

desperate for hope in a refugee camp,

and I know a burden on my heart.

I think of them, my mother and my father,

so fearful of the modern world,

facing health costs impossible to meet,

cut adrift from their children,

and I know a burden on my heart.

Yes, I care. But do you care enough?

Call

There was no voice from heaven,

no temple filled with smoke,

no light on the Damascus Road,

But through human voices

the call comes loud and clear.

If you have gifts, give them freely,

if you have time, share it,

if you have strength, march on,

if you have love, embrace me

and if you know the blessing of God

you are needed to become a blessing.

Cross

Pain, blood, wounds, weakness, death -

so the cross marks the boundary of life,

old life over, new life to be born.

Here is the crossing place

from the old gods of bloodless power

to the vulnerable presence of love.

Here eternity is midday

and light shines in the darkness.

Humanity exposed, our crisis known,

our wounds bound up with love,

and so we say

This death is life-giving,

see the heart of the Creator.

Covenant

I will be with you always

not only in the rainbow's assurance,

not only in the garden at dawn,

not only in ancient days of faith,

but now, tomorrow, always.

 

That's the only confidence we need,

not empires and glory

but the healing' presence.

This is the new covenant in my blood,

life given, life giving, life abundant.