THE YOUNG PREACHER’S COMEUPPANCE [T, 12-27-22]

 CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter:

THE YOUNG PREACHER’S COMEUPPANCE [T, 12-27-22]

 

Now is the day

of my comeuppance

for all those years

of preaching

that love is a verb

and life is

too much trouble

unless you live

for something big

and Christ has no hands

but my hands

[Actually, I never liked

that one, but I said

the same thing

in different ways]

Now I can live for nothing

more than remembering

why I am in this room

even when it is the bathroom

If Christ has no hands

but my hands

we’re both in bad shape

I live no verbs

Even my nouns

are passive

So I ask forgiveness

of all those old people

  “puny & feeble”

  marked beside their names

  in the Solsberry member roll

who heard me proclaim

that they must go

do great things

when they could barely

find the mouth with the spoon

or remember what comes after

Our Father…

 

John Robert McFarland