Easter week
Jesus alive with us
Alleluia
No people pleaser
Jesus is resurrected
I'm lieing down
He doesn't lie
Alleluia Easter day
He is risen
…
We wait
In sadness at his death
On the cross
Set your alarm
Easter Day morn
Witness the dawn
….
Five more days till Easter
One more week of Lent
A week of holy thinking
Of memory and lament
It's OK if you deny
Peter did it thrice
Don't be afraid to follow
Jesus paid your price
…
It is done
He is gone
We are waiting
He will live on
…
Jesus suffering
It hurt him to save you
Courageous saviour
Turn to him
What do you have to lose
He loves you
…
Three days ago
He died on the cross
We did nothing
Just stood and watched
In those days
We've cried and wept
For what we've lost
And all our regrets
And now, today
On visiting the tomb
Mary found
An empty room
Jesus gone
Who took him away?
Mary left
She couldn't stay
As she left
A man she saw
Spoke to her
Told her all
"He is risen"
This she says
That man was Jesus
It was him she met
Jesus died
This we knew
But now he's back
For me and you
Today is joy
For one and all
Mankind is saved
For ever more
…
Today is the darkest day.
Today we remember Judas' betrayal.
Today we hear the crowds crying for Jesus' death, and we feel Pilate's weakness and fear.
Today we feel the weight of the cross, the sharpness of the crown of thorns and the pain of the nails.
Today we hear again the last hours of Jesus' life.
Today we remember with sorrow the crucifixion and death of Jesus.
Today we hear and feel Jesus giving his life for us.
Today, is heartbreaking.
Today, despite knowing the glorious happy ending, I shed tears of grief.
Today is the darkest day.
…
Brought down by the weight of her mistakes. She almost buckles under the weight of the bag. A bag full of criticism and anxiety, of sadness and stress.
She falls and she can't get up.
She is jeered at
and spat at
and abandoned.
Yet she's offered help by a stranger, although she doesn't accept it.
Can't accept it.
It's the stations of the cross in all its sadness.
Eventually she reaches the top of the hill and she is done.
It is done.
She can do no more.
But, suddenly…. she's not alone.
There's someone there she knows
Someone she knows well
and they talk together
and it hits me
between the eyes
"It's God!"
And God is full of these platitudes and soundbites and I silently pray God would never do that.
She wouldn't would she?
But then God utters these words
"We all have our crosses to bear.
I'll always be here."
And I cry.
I weep.
I let go so much of my own sadness and stress and anxiety knowing that those words are so true.
But it didn't end there.
No.
She comes back down the hill
How?
She meets her friends again
Who?
She tells them how to make the world a better place;
Reassures
Equips
Blesses
…
These poems have been included in a number of publications including
Logismos Easter 2020 https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/logismos-collective/logismos-magazine-issue-1/paperback/product-124e8d77.html
Liturgy in Dangerous Times https://simonjcross.com/writing/dangerous-liturgy/
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