Processionals

(x = space)

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take away the confessional and informative emendations and there’s one poem here with endings like certain music selections

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Processionals

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I think

Often of David

Of a picture

I have seen

Or made up

It’s when the ark

Is brought into

Jerusalem

And it’s a triumph

A kind of victory

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And I think of David

Young

(and was he young)

Dancing

Before the ark

Not wearing much

But he’s king

And he arranged all this

And so

The instruments

Let play

And maybe favorites

Follow suit

x

I see light colors

As if this were a desert scene

Done as a picture

With pastels

You know

I think I figure the hair

On David

From the statue by

Michelangelo

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Processions are important

He and they

Had to have one

Because the ark

Would have a home

Forever

Well

At least for generations

(I should

look this up

it might be before

Absalom)

But what do we know

Today is forever

And the

Ark is here

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And Jesus came

Into Jerusalem

And a procession

Was needed

And so it was

Arranged

In humility

And somehow awesome

Awful majesty

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C L Couch

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I worked on this scene before as a draft; I have in mind I didn’t finish it, and this time I did; but if the other work appeared and I forgot, then I apologize for the repetition—CLC

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and a bit more (for free)

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a coda

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David was a shepherd

He was a king

He was loved by God

As either

So are you

Loved by God

For either

Any

Way

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Photo by Alberico Bartoccini on Unsplash

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(and here’s the lesson should you need one

coda 2

that was D. S.

this is D. C.)

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Jesus came

Into Jerusalem

Like the ark

Meaning a triumph

Victory

For a home people

Battling

To keep a promise

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And like the ark

Is lost

Defeat

And sacrifice

Through lack of faith

(bad kings—you may

look it up)

And so sacrilege

And a new needed

Promise

Follows

(read the prophets)

For restoration

Of the people

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Turns out

It’s Israel

And all of us

Redeemed

Through this

Second coming

Triumph

Then sacrifice

This time as well

And

Cosmically speaking

Greater

All the world

And how far out

On the edge

x

With destruction

Turned to joy

With all our flaws intact

Until a final resurrection

That will keep

Us and the world

Intact

And better

And forever

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Stone not only

Rolled away

But smashed

Here endeth

And look

And listen

Smell

And taste

And touch

This is the start

And we might think we do

But we don’t know

What’s next

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Glory

(x = space)

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Glory

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It’s a Sunday feeling

For those who have a Sunday

To be speaking

And singing to the Lord

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The pastor cites

The shortest psalm

As an invocation,

Which is an invitation

More so a directive

To be singing

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Can you imagine David

Dancing first

Before the ark

When it was brought into

Jerusalem?

There was singing then

And all the instruments

We’ve heard about

That played

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Today is Mission Sunday at this church

So there are connections to the world

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Everyone’s invited

Everywhere

Not as a number

But as you,

You are invited

To meet Jesus

Through us

Not because we are messiahs

But because

We can quote him

Tell his story

Show you something of his love

For everyone

And the hope that the whole human world

Might be saved,

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Which is God’s wish

But not God’s will

For God has mitigated God

In favoring our will

And our decisions

Yes, it’s the reason why

The world is so flawed

And screws up so badly

x

That according to the story

Has made us

The silent planet in the universe

Burning other planets

With what happened in the garden

And then

Going quiet

While the planet’s fate is determined

Of itself

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Then there will be noise

x

But here is David

In Jerusalem

And there is great noise

Locally

That celebrates

That helps to consecrate

The presence and the symbol

And our rendering of faith

In holy God

And in each other

As neighbors

And a nation

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The world will not know you, Lord;

And nations will fall

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We could wish it were not so,

And we do

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But not everyone will be there

In the sky

The circle won’t be broken

But our hearts,

Well,

They are other matters

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It’s a Sunday feeling

For those who have a Sunday

And take one

Or on another day

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We have been ransomed

From kidnapping,

From the prisons

Huge or small—all intimate

When they should not

Have to be

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The world violates our souls

And yet we believe

And from the ashes

Of all sins consumed

At last,

We shall rise

Who choose to rise

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The glory of the Lord

In homely ways

Inside the heart

We do not understand

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How something so

Cosmically grand

Can live in something

So small

As our souls,

One soul by one

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Then there is the glory

That we read about

And then imagine:

The universe made straight

While also bending low,

We with that

And all the Earth

That knows at last

This is it,

The certainty of God

In blinding presence

That will not hurt our eyes

And the song of angels,

Unbinded song

That should destroy

But will not touch eardrums

Adversely

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The glory of the Lord

Clearly

All there is,

Compelling

As to break our souls

Though it will not—in fact,

We’ll never had been

Better,

Freer,

Then to get

Our next assignments

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C L Couch

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Photo by Christian Cagni on Unsplash

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dispersed

(x = space)

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dispersed

(from the beginning of the book of James)

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we were together, Mom and Dad

(physical or meaningful)

now we are spread far

we can always say

the Romans did this

but there is our own

polemics

stranding us

separated

in a world driven by

its own prince

that drove Jesus

in the wilderness

from one arid part to another

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I’m sorry we are no longer

together

though we have letters

we are the legacy of David, still

we are a people

and, as always,

we are family

I hope you are well where you are

I hope that work and food

come easily

I fear, because I know

such things are never certain

we came away with what we had

some maybe had accounts

and interests along the Mediterranean,

generally

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we live today

and in the Messianic time

and must take hope in that

God will return

God also waits for us

like the shepherd by the

clear stream,

both to beckon

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and God is with us, now

with love

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with love,

this note from your child

we all are children now

again

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c l couch

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James is a brief letter in the Christian New Testament; the pastor preached on James this morning at Covenant Evangelical Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana (USA)

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photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

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King for a Day

(x = space)

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King for a Day

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King for a day

His day

Our day

Faithful king

Sinful king

Silenced before prophecy

The parable of Nathan

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We want a king

God gave Saul

Maybe for this next time

God chose a favorite

A paradox

Youth against wisdom

Music versus war

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The height of Goliath

(or of Saul)

Against the reach

Of sling and stone

And the power to be favored

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C L Couch

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in response to a prompt from the Canadian Bible Society for a creative expression of David from the Old Testament (https://biblescanada.com/giveaway)

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Photo by Robert Linder on Unsplash

Vintage photo of a soldier during WWII. Photographer: Charles Wilfred Linder

England, UK

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The Fall of the House of Jesse

The Fall of the House of Jesse

(Tamar, Amnon, David)

 

 

Tamar

 

I said not to reject me after

Because with men that is what happens

Guilt of what was done

Scorn for the receiver of the sinner’s sin

 

In a royal house,

This can happen

Maybe more so

The sense of privilege that each one bears

The privilege to call a sibling in for help with

Sickness,

A pretense for rape

 

 

Amnon

 

I must have her

Own her, keep her

As a prize

I love her body

The way she looks in courtyards

And the rooms of the palace

We are family

We are royals

There is no shame

We make the laws to follow

God made it so through Saul

And now our father David

I feigned illness, though it was close enough

To truth

I was sick with love for her

I made her come to me, send all others

Away

When she came near to treat me, I gripped

Her clothing, and she knew

She must approve

I am the king’s son

I matter more

And now that I’ve been inside her,

I feel no madness and no illness

What had I been thinking?

What we did was awful

She is awful

I pushed her off, her clothing followed

She was a covered heap on the polished floor

The servants will clean that

I’m done

 

 

David

 

I am the king

I could do nothing

My own sin forbade me

How can I chastise my own

About a crime of passion

When I have committed mine?

Crimes of

Adultery and murder

Are my legacies

Not the conquests or the

Ark or my children

The child to rule born out of

Sin—

What shall be visited upon him?

 

And so in nearly every way

I stood and sat silent

Would not, could not rule in her favor

As virtue and the law would say

(does say)

I should have

Now there will be more violence

I have engendered it

Absalom must have his way

There will be rebellion

The nation will be split

There will be war

The judgment on my sin

Brought down upon this generation

How many more children of children?

 

Where is justice?

Not with me, upon my throne

Or in my house

I have wounded my realm

Hurt all my people

I will rule

I am called

I am God’s favorite

But all attributes and actions

Are hollow

 

 

C L Couch

 

2 Samuel 13

 

 

Photo by JR Korpa on Unsplash

Electromagnetic Crown

 

The Parable of Nathan

The Parable of Nathan

(2 Samuel 12)

 

David was the king

 

Nathan in the court

Prophet, one of what had once been

The ruling group

 

Nathan told David about

Someone rich with money, lands,

And livestock

Who stole the one sheep of

His neighborhood to have

A feast of mutton

 

Who is this thief and murderer of

Law and goodness,

The monarch demanded

 

Nathan taught

He prophesied a lesson

Timeless truth to borrowed power

(Which is all the power there

Is)

 

This thief of God’s provision

Nathan said to David,

It is you

 

C L Couch