can you hear?

can you hear them?

they are crying out
in loves name
crowning him prince of peace
‘hosanna to the bread breaker’

they are crying out
to the man of sorrows
salvation’s gargoyle
and heaven’s menace

they are crying out

naming the healer
naming the befriender
naming the imbiber and table talker
friend of sinners and tax-collectors

it is a shout not heard in the corridors of power or of faith

teaming with the justice of God
this shout is the oppressors adversary
the torturer’s enemy
the racist’s traitor

betraying what is wrong
in the dissenting arguments of the world
the shout that exposes the silence of the status quo
and fills it out with the promise of heaven
the truth about Jesus
and the call of love

and when the crowd turns away
and the people vote for Barabbas
when the disciples run in fear
and the fearful choose to silence the man
still they cry out

not the followers
not the believers
not the fishermen or the women
not the church or her Christians
not the angels or the saints

but in the greatest silence and deepest darkness
of the moment after death
crushed at the tomb of a broken saviour
then they cry out their loudest
a long, deep, slow, rumbling alleluia
of the tombstone as it rolls

listen if you have ears
the very stones are crying out

These and other meditations that appear here along with many that don't can be subscribed to by emailing here. It is a monthly mailing at the end of the month of various worship pieces from the previous four or five weeks. It is called Mucky Paws and is free and for your own and congregation's use.