God of our weary years – James Weldon Johnson

During the Month of February, the Rooke Chapel Congregation is praying with great leaders, thinkers, activists, poets and scholars of the Black Church (writ large.)

This week, Sunday 2/24/19,  James Weldon Johnson –

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
thou who has by thy might,
led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray
lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee,
least our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee,
shadowed beneath the hand,
may we forever stand,
true to our God,
True to our native land.

A Level Place

2/24/19
Rooke Chapel Congregation

luke 6: 17-26

We’ve been wrestling with Matthew’s sermon on the mount,
For a couple of weeks now.
Thinking about perfection, and turning the other cheek.
And Salt and light.
We skipped, you may have noticed,
Matthew’s long and beautiful list of blessings –
Blessed are the poor in spirit, mourners, the meek, hungry, merciful, peacemakers.
It is a lovely text,
If perhaps,
A little dulled by overuse
on mugs and inspirational Christian Instagram.

But instead, this morning,
We’ve jumped to Luke’s version.
Now, I’m a Luke guy through and through.
If all of a sudden,
the bible ship started to sink,
and I only had time to save one book.
It would definitely be Luke’s Gospel.
Luke’s version of Jesus is especially pointed,
especially concerned with justice,
and poverty,
and he connects especially,
God’s coming reign,
with the lived, earthly experience.
But I must admit,
that when it comes to the sermon on the mount,
I prefer Matthew’s version (Matthew 5)  Continue reading “A Level Place”