tefillin, mezuzahs
tied to arm and forehead
fixed to doorposts
carrying the Law
commands for holy living
expectations of godliness
symbolically borne

bread and wine
patten with chalice
aumbry and monstrance
the presence of Christ
in which we are enjoined
to transform and renew
signs seeking holiness

beyond such symbols
outwith the bounds
of fastened scriptures
bread broken, wine outpoured
surpassing desire for control
religiosity in all its power
to find thin places of being
generational becoming
God in encounter


Third Sunday of Lent
23rd March 2025
following Deuteronomy 6.4-9
Luke 22.14-20

they saw the cliff edge
getting nearer and nearer
he wouldn't, couldn't
it's all just bluster
it's got to be
then

the edge gives way
solid crumbles
void opens
the expected
the reliable
the certain
all that was sure
those fixed points
on which we relied
everything trustworthy
emptying to nothing
falling into, well who knows
signed away, lost, abandoned
by presidential decree
plunging


22nd March 2025

shut behind gates and walls
barbed wire, guards and guns
necessities of life
food, water, electricity
blocked, forbidden
homes, health care, education
with deliberation laid waste
destruction raining down
on men, women and children
especially the children
killed to order
death by command
the next phase of that
final solution long envisaged
diligently worked towards
by those twisted visionaries
prepared to sacrifice
people deemed a non-people
whose rights and lives
are forfeit to
political decision
legal artifice
public othering
and military force
Warsaw 1940 to '43
Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem
to be expunged, extirpated
dead or gone

history repeats itself
it has to
no-one listens
while the world looks on
and some plan condominiums


22nd March 2025

envisioned:
a city of hope
where justice rules
compassion reigns
kindness flourishes
mercy walks the streets
the thinnest of places
of encounter
to live, to know
the source of being
even as we are known
locus of becoming

experience:
fighting for holy
places and spaces
temple, synagogue
church and mosque
for control of access
correct understanding
suppression of alternates
perceptions and theologies
the slaughter,  the horror
the blood soaked land
always the land

Jerusalem


Second Sunday of Lent
16th March 2025

of heads

survival of the fittest
the selfish gene
Darwinian evolution
where might is right
the exercise of power
for me and for mine

and tails

kenotic love
for neighbours, strangers
persecutors even enemies
transcending evolution
power that benefits all
a mutual flourishing

and spaces interweaving

I will be your god
if you will be my people
ever a choice
maybe


Second Sunday of Lent
16th March 2025

chosen
commissioned
but why, for what
forty days, forty nights
wilderness fast and prayer
solitude, thought, reflection
resisting temptations of power
physical, political, religious
choose another path
to act justly
love mercy
walky humbly
with God
whole
entire
through life
even death
and beyond
choosing


First Sunday of Lent
9th March 2025

‘Peace, peace
when there is no peace'
you may bully, bribe, obfuscate
enforce your will on those weaker
side with the violator, the invader
cut yourself a slice of the action
play pat-a-cake with war criminals
who dishonour humanity
desecrate the law
pretend indeed
it does not exist
rewrite history
to that effect
but without justice
there is no peace
not for Ukraine
Israeli nor Palestinian
not for anyone
neither your own


6th March 2025