BETRAYING BETRAYAL [An entry in my poetry journal] [M, 7-26-21]

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

BETRAYING BETRAYAL [An entry in my poetry journal] [M, 7-26-21]

 

In a world and life

Of betrayals

Long lived and short

The ultimate betrayal

Of life

Is death

 

Which is why Christ

Died to vanquish Sin

Not those little daily

Sins of betrayal

That we foist and joust

Upon one another

Anger and greed and lust

Always original, always mundane

Nothing takes those away

But the Sin that betrays

Us into death while living

 

Now that I am old enough

To know betrayal’s true

Length and breadth

When my legs and eyes

Hands and yes, especially,

Memory

When these betray me

I know that my Sin is gone

That Christ was born

To betray betrayal

For Christ died

 

Not in my place

As the theologians claim

Too much learning for their own good

Their own little legalisms

Betraying their own hopes

 

But to keep the way open

Into Life

To stand at the door

Of eternity

To suffer himself

For God

As well as you and me

To bring us together

To take on even death

That ultimate betrayer

Of life

 

The only way

To roll away

The stone of betrayal

 

John Robert McFarland

“Being good is better than being bad, but being Christian is about the transformation of the will, not the execution of the will.” Marcus Borg