Tearing

On the day when Jesus

strolled down to the Jordan

to meet with John and to be baptised,

the heavens, it is said, were torn apart.

They’ve been tearing apart ever since,

not just with Jesus,

who was outrageous enough;

some of those who came after him

have ripped things up a bit, too.

They broke laws, defied the powers

and governments, and challenged

the fearful and loveless status quo.

Here are some of the outcomes;

divine fragments,

torn from the heavenly interface

like squares from yesterday’s newspaper

and layered with earth’s paste

as they are fashioned into something new

and surprising.

A papier-mâche new creation, disturbing,

defiant, and more than a little foolish;

it is flimsy and fragile,

a vulnerable reliquary

of sacred hope.

© Ken Rookes 2015

Transfiguration quote

Transfiguration is living by vision: standing foursquare in the midst of a broken, tortured, oppressed, starving, dehumanizing reality, yet seeing the invisible, calling to it to come, behav­ing as if it is on the way, sustained by elements of it that have come already, within and among us. In those moments when people are healed, transformed, freed from addictions, obsessions, destructiveness, self-wor­ship or when groups or communities or even, rarely, whole nations glimpse the light of the transcendent in their midst, there the New Creation has come upon us. The world for one brief moment is transfigured. The beyond shines in our midst—on the way to the cross.

Walter Wink