Romans 5:1-10

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. …

Peace With God

The place to arrive

Is

Also the place to begin

Every step

Every move

Peace eludes me

Not unlike

Job

I elude peace

Not unlike Jonah

I demand the return

Of my loved ones

Not unlike Martha

I live in fear

Without

Peace with God

Let me unclench my

Life

And begin the

Way of Peace

Force open my

Inner door

Peace

With God

Light a candle

For the journey

Peace joins hope

Fellow travelers

On

This

Advent Peace Protest

March

Migration

Pilgrimage

Odyssey

Marathon

Maranatha

Morning

Singing

O Come

O Come

1   Lord, you have been our dwelling place

          in all generations.

2   Before the mountains were brought forth,

          or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

          from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3   You turn us back to dust,

          and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”

4   For a thousand years in your sight

          are like yesterday when it is past,

          or like a watch in the night.

Hope Watches In the Night

We take turns

Feeding the light

Nurturing the flame

For each other

Cold

Bereft

Frightened

But

Not

Alone

We

Watch

And

Wait

Alone

Together

Hope

Happens

Time

Weathered

Like this

Visage

Worn

Away

Waiting

life energy

Becoming

Beauty

soul

Endurance

Still

Here

Here

In the temple

Court

Waiting

Watching

Hoping

Making

Wind

Blasting

Sandpaper

Grit

Turning

This face

Into art

Carving

Holy light

Made flesh

Before the one

Who comes

In the clear blue

fullness

of hope

sky returns

Although

The world

Turns on itself

Hope fills

inner horizons

Watch me fly

Romans 5: 3-5…suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (NRSV)

Undoing Disappointment

garment of

Pain

stretching tension

Between knotted lives

We knit

assiduously

Only

To be unraveled

Undone

Reassigned

become

Anew

Garment

Woven

Again

From divinity

At work in us

Endurance

At work in us

Hope

tugging us loose

Out of control

Losing

The stuff

We think we

Are made of

We fight

For every stitch

Slipping

Through us

Undoing disappointment

Cast off to the edge

Of

No

Thing

Then begins the labor

Of Spirit

the clothing

Of our souls

In love

Undone

Whole

Maker-

Made

Hope prepares the

Way

For

Love

Stillness of Hope

That feeling

Empty

Hollow

Old

Lonely…

Could it be

(O Glory)

Necessary

Precursor

(Steeping in fear)

To holding still

Spaciousness

Interior

(O loathing)

Fecund

Sloughing

Active inaction

(O mercy)

To prepare a way

A broken deserted

Way

But still

A way

To hope