Advent Poem 2015 - Mary sought the Lord...

After my poetic accomplishments on Saturday, I was challenged - on Sunday - by a lovely church member, to write something for Advent, which is fast upon us.

Seek and find (Advent 2015)

Mary sought the Lord

Domestically.

A child that learned

How skirts brush distant dreams.

Mary sought the Lord

And found that angels come,

regardless,

telling servant now that God is near.

Mary sought the Lord

Elizabeth replied,

 exclaimed that God is found

In such a gentle womb.

Mary sought the Lord

And heard old Anna,

Simeon, say what prophets

long foretold.

 

Mary sought the Lord

For meaning,

Stories, gifts and foreign kings

and fleeing kept her low.

Mary sought the Lord

Just mothering and wondering

What

special child she nursed.

Mary sought the Lord

But he was doing Father’s work,

and other mothers, sisters, brothers,

too.

Mary sought the Lord

Pale death, was hung upon a tree and

John was near her now.

She wept.

Mary sought the Lord

Redemption, glorious

Risen!

Pierced hearts now full of Spirit and of Word.

©JCV 12-Oct-2015

Poem "Limping, standing tall"

We all have struggles.  But struggling with God is another thing altogether.
The Bible is full of stories of men and women who wrestled with their faith - and with God - literally as well as metaphorically.
I wrote this after a long period of "wrestle" - which God won - because he is God and he WILL win (sooner or later), or cease to be God. It is my firm belief which I read from the Bible.
Identification with the Biblical figures comes from a life of reading the Bible and meditating on their honesty, joys, troubles, trials, mistakes and accomplishments.  They were human.  They speak to me.
Letting God speak through them is the key.

Limping standing tall:

I am Jonah. I am Peter.

I am Moses. I am Paul.

I have fought with God like Jacob -

Yes, I’ve limped like him –

and crawled.

I have doubted and I’ve ranted

and I’ve tried to do it all.

Then I listened and I wondered -

Now I’m answering Your call.

I am following You, Jesus -

Still I’m limping, standing tall;

For the touch You rent inside me,

makes regret of all my gall.

 

You have broken me, Lord Jesus –

put my back against the wall;

And I’ve stumbled and I’ve crumbled,

so towards You now I fall.

You are Saviour; You are Helper;

You are Guiding, Guarding Light;

You are Purifying Fire;

You are Comfort in the night.

 

Jesus help me, Jesus help me –

Help me! keep me, now I call.

Keep me close to You Lord Jesus –

You’re my everything, my All.

28.04.14 JCV

This poem won "Second Prize", senior division, in the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane inaugural 'Spoken Worship Poetry Competition', October 2015.

Poem "Leaving without grace"

This is a poem I wrote some years ago now, after visiting the women's psychiatric ward in the town where I was living in Morocco.  Mental illness is not treated nicely in most places but especially not in the developing world.  Women - and children - are very vulnerable. 
Under the law, 'repudiation' means a woman may be divorced with only a few words and cast out onto the street to beg, or to prostitution.  Often, women fleeing violence or simply refusing to obey family will be put under psychiatric care.  Being different is not acceptable, nor is fighting the status quo.
Jesus, however, set about to turn the Jewish law on its head when he preached grace and repentance.
This poem is based on the story of The Woman Caught in Adultery, from the Gospel according to John, chapter 8, verses 2-11.

Leaving without grace by Jo Vandersee, April 2004, Morocco.

Edited 2015

PART 1 - The Pharisees

We all walked away.

Turned our backs and went away.

Couldn’t bear the things He’d said –

Tried to shut them out instead.

His head bowed and looking down

As He scratched upon the ground.

We just couldn’t stand and stay –

So we turned and walked away.

She was crouching, not too near,

Clutching shreds and clutching fear.

Her head too was hanging down

She was waiting for the sound

Of rocks to whistle through the air

But that sound just wasn’t there.

They had turned and walked away –

They just could not bear to stay –

“Where are those who condemn you, woman?”

“I don’t know, my Lord, I…” –

“Nor do I condemn you – go now –

Leave that way and sin no more now”.

PART 2 – The woman

They had no idea of what had taken place –

They just all got up and left there - without grace.

They just couldn’t bear to see the look on that naked woman’s face.

They had tried to have her killed but then they all gave up the chase.

She was now covered with His robe and with His grace –

She was so very frightened to look up into that space

Where before those angry men had loudly broadcast her disgrace;

But now a Man with His true words had given grace –

And she believed it – as it filled that empty space

Inside her heart, to go and change her filthy lace

For garments made of righteousness and grace.

PART 3 – The rest of us

 We are leaving, just like they did, without grace,

When we fail to see small miracles take place,

When we ‘box’ the love of God into our invented space,

When we imagine that there is not enough of grace

For the ragged, tired and lonely, for the difficult and dirty,

for the handicapped and homeless, for the masses and

the multitudes that beg and cry for freedom from

the devil’s cold embrace.

It’s our job to touch this world – one by one, day by day –

With a touch that enters their space –

With a look that then expresses all the love that’s on His face,

So we never walk away and leave that woman – any woman, ANYBODY –

without grace.

 (received 'Highly Commended' award at the inaugural Anglican Diocese of Brisbane 'Spoken Worship Poetry Competition', October 2015, Senior division)

Abraham and Sarah go into the Wild

The Bible, from the beginning line, assumes God, so, as a Christian believer, I will not be defending the idea, existence or character of God  - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who is the same God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A long, long, long, long time ago, God called this man Abram, as in: spoke to, said, told, directed -verbally or in a dream (the Bible does not say) - and told him to stop worshipping other gods, pack up his stuff, and leave for somewhere else - Go into the Wild. 
Now, nomadic people of the Ancient Near East were not unknown for having gods, dreaming dreams, or wandering about near and far.  That this specific record comes down to us thousands of years later is significant, and worth reading from Genesis 11:27 through to 12:9.
Abram received both call and promise from God.  The call was to hear and obey the instructions of the One who made the heavens and the earth - the One who knows all, sees all, and whose ideals are to be followed.  The promise was a huge, unusual and far-reaching prospect:  to be the father of many nations (when he and his wife were old and childless), to possess land (when he was of a nomadic tribe and culture), and to be a blessing to many (who? how? what? when?).
Abraham - his name changed and his nature being transformed - obeyed God, and this was the overall summation of his life, even though specifically, he stuffed up badly and often. 
[Read the story!]
His wife, Sarai, whose name was also changed - to Sarah - had to come along too, as there was no such thing as lone, independent women in those days.  Her story is enmeshed with that of Abraham:  she lies as connives as much as he does; treats Hagar horribly after using her as a surrogate; laughs at the thought of a promised child knowing that old age was a great encumbrance to the action and the passion, and, seems to be a bit negative if not nasty.  She was, like Abraham, a 'normal', fallible, sinful human being.
But God (my two favourite words in the whole universe!!!!) intervened, and patiently and lovingly drew these two wanderers by his name and by his word.
God's grace to fallen humanity is clear in his treatment of this foundational Bible couple.  God does not strike them dead after their lies, after Sarah's laugh (and lie about it) - after all, the purpose of God is to show himself great in the light of human weakness.  The purpose of God is to let us see our darkness and sin and so run to him for grace, mercy and forgiveness.
And so Sarah died, as we all must, and Abraham purchased with gold the first patch of promised ground, Ephron's field near Mamre:  "both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field" (Genesis 23:17).  Abraham buried Sarah in the cave and mourned under the trees for the allotted period of time, as per ancient customs. 
The Wild was being changed by the tears of the father.
Those trees and many others of the promised land, would be watered with much more blood, sweat and tears as time went on.

In the woods...and the wild

02 Feb 2015
I will be continuing with the theme of "The Woods" for some time as I have always been fascinated by nature, and by fire, since growing up in the bush of Central Queensland.

The Bible - from start to finish - has both literal and symbolic elements of trees, wood, crosses and things that will be consumed by fire:  the special Trees in the Garden of Eden, the field of the terebinth tree which Abraham purchased for the burial of his wife Sarah, the Tabernacle in the wilderness (wood), the Ark of the Covenant (wooden box covered in gold), the sacred trees and altars of Canaan-Israel, the cedars of Lebanon - and the list goes on.

I will explore some of these in future posts, but first to the other movie of my holiday period:
"The Wild" tells the 'true' story of one woman's journey - literal as well as symbolic - from the edge of self-destruction back to whatever. 
From an abusive childhood, to drugs and cheating on a nice husband, Cheryl Strayed (a deliberate choice of new surname at the time of separation to show that she did in fact 'stray' from 'the path'...) recounts walking the Pacific trail in the USA from the Mexican border with California to the northern border of Canada.
She took herself into the wilderness - "the woods" - and had to face her life, her failures, her pain and her fears.  She found her inner strength to keep going despite many challenges, as well as some nice and helpful people along the way.
Now, this is all good and helpful and happy for her. [NB:  I hope to read up on her life now and see what she took from "The Wild" back to job? and 'usual' life off the trails...]
Looking at this from a human perspective - we celebrate and enjoy the triumph over personal demons to improve and learn and grow ourselves into better people.
What I always wonder though, is what about the ones who cannot just take off to India/South America/Pacific trail?  What about the financially poor, the emotionally crippled, the "stuck" in abusive situations and those who cannot (for whatever reason) "FIND IT WITHIN THEMSELVES" to move on/make a change/pack up and leave????
I wonder about them.
Well, so did Jesus and his Gospel is for those who have nothing left, and no boot-straps to pull themselves up by... (neither did Cheryl after one walking boot slid away over the cliff, she threw the other after it in angry despair).
"The Woods" or "The Wild" is what we are in; is what is inside of us, and we take it with us wherever we go.  Only ANOTHER - a Divine Other - coming from the outside into our situations, can change both it and us.  The Gospel story tells us that God's way is through Jesus, to reach those who admit that they don't have it all together, can't do it alone, and who are willing to be shown another Path.

We all live in The Woods

January 2015

I have begun my 43rd year of life - quietly, with fellow Christians at a conference full of good Bible teaching and praises to God. And with special friends at their home.
It was just before the tragic killings in France and the slaughters by terrorists in the villages and markets of Nigeria.
Then I went to see the movie "Into the Woods".
This mixture of characters from fairytales is a dark take on the reality of life - it is often not what we wish for, nor does it always end well.  We all have a place (or places) - the Woods - where we either rise to the challenge before us, or sink to our depths.
In fact, character - the internal virtues that are embraced and evidenced in time of trouble - is an underlying theme, as much as the spoofs on prince-liness and over-bearing mothers.
It was not as dark as I had feared, but darker still:
If all I need lies within me, and I choose my own path to be the master of my own fate, then we are all in trouble.
Honestly, do we need to keep believing the lie that WE are okay?  That WE can make it out of the Woods, even by cooperating and "sticking together'?
We - frail and sinful humanity, "born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards" (Book of Job), cannot lift ourselves up by our own bootlaces!!!!!
And so the link between the violence and the movie is this:  we are fallen, we are in trouble, WE - humanity - are in the Woods of sin and darkness, and we CANNOT get out by ourselves.
To humbly turn to God and accept his saviour Jesus Christ is not only an act of courage and character, but one that can only happen due to his amazing grace - not our effort.
This is what the disappointed and weeping world fails to realise, and so wanders on in The Woods.