Lectionary readings for February 22, 2012: Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Corinthians 5: 20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 
Lenten Lectionary (Cycle B) Calendar

“Yet even now, says the Lord, repent and return to me with all your heart.” –Joel 2:13

Today is Ash Wednesday—the beginning of the Church’s observance of the Lenten season. Ash Wednesday ushers us into a space in time in which we engage very intentionally into the disciplines of prayer, self-examination and repentance.  But these disciplines—as significant as they are—are not ends in themselves.  They are a means to an end and that end is that we would return to God with all our hearts.

What are You Giving Up for Lent?

Unfortunately, the practice of entering into the Lenten season has often been reduced to the question: “What are you giving up for Lent?”  This is a fine question, but it only takes us so far.  The real question of the Lenten season is: How will I repent and return to God with all my heart? This begs an even deeper question: Where in my life have I gotten away from God and what are the disciplines that will enable me to find my way back?

How many and how subtle are the ways we “leave” God and the true spiritual journey in favor of other pursuits—even those that seem very noble and even necessary.  The cares and concerns of life in this world and even the dreams and visions that God has given us can become distractions from the relationship itself. One day we wake up and realize that we have tolerated that which is intolerable and compromised that which is of greatest value.  Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart.

What a poignant and compelling invitation!

Our Messy House

Returning to God with all our hearts begins with repentance. In her book Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris tells the story of working as an artist-in-residence at a parochial school, teaching children how to write poetry using the psalms as a model. One little boy wrote a poem entitled “The Monster Who Was Sorry.”  He began by admitting that he hates it when his father yells at him; his response (in the poem) is to throw his sister down the stairs, then to wreck his room, and finally to wreck the whole town.  The poem concludes: “Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, ‘I shouldn’t have done all that.’”

“My messy house” says it all, Norris observes.  “With more honesty than most adults could have mustered, the boy made a metaphor for himself that admitted the depth of his rage and also gave him a way out…he was well on the way toward repentance, not such a monster after all, but only human.  If the house is messy, why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish to dwell?”

This kind of truth-telling is the essence of repentance.  It is truth in that deepest down place, the secret heart that is so hard for us to listen to and open to the light of God’s presence. And yet, this is the kind of truth-telling God’s desires—honest admissions about those deeply-patterned, self-protective responses that shape our decisions every day and have nothing to do with true faith.  We have a hard time naming and acknowledging these subtle dynamics, but they “wreck our house” nonetheless.

Practicing Repentance

During Lent we sit in our messy house and get a little more honest about the fact that we are in disarray. We acknowledge what got us into the mess we are in, we feel our remorse and admit, “I wish I hadn’t done that.” This is the kind of truth that Jesus is talking about when he says You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Lenten disciplines help us to abstain from the daily distractions that prevent us from seeing and naming reality correctly. As we allow some of the external trappings of our lives to be stripped away, we can return to a truer sense of ourselves and a deeper pursuit of God. We acknowledge the subtle temptations to which we are prone rather than pretending that we are beyond temptation.

The disciplines of fasting and other kinds of abstinence help us to abstain from that which distracts us and numbs our awareness so that we can become more finely attuned to what is going on in our lives spiritually-speaking. We allow ourselves to experience the necessary grief that leads to repentance and we ask God to lead us in a new and everlasting way.

Entering In

Today many of us will receive the symbolic gesture of the imposition of ashes on our foreheads as a way of acknowledging our human finiteness and mortality. No matter who we think we are, the traditions of Ash Wednesday remind us that “you are dust and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19)  This is not meant to be morbid, it is just meant to limit our grandiosity and help us to stay in touch with the real human condition that we all share.  This is a wonderful discipline for us as leaders who are so prone to getting lost in the fog of illusions created by believing our own press.

The ashes marking our foreheads carry the same meaning contained in the Old Testament practice of covering oneself with ashes.  They are an outward sign of an inward repentance and the mourning we experience as we become aware of our sin.  This is good for us because we live in so much denial. Facing our sin in the shadow of Christ’s cross and impending resurrection is the healthiest way to deal with the knowledge of our sin.

As sobering as the Lenten season is, it is also strangely hopeful. There is a path for returning to God no matter how distracted I have been. Even now, God says, no matter how far away you have gotten…Even now I am inviting you to look for the path of returning and to walk it with all your heart.

A Prayer for Entering into Lent

“O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest

we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength:

by the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence,

where we may be still and know that you are God,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, page 832

Click here to view “Our Favorite Resources for Lent.”

Below are five books we can heartily recommend as you practice Lent and create space for God during this important season of the Church year. You can access the lectionary readings for Lent here.

Bread and Wine:  Readings for Lent and Easter—Penetrating readings from a variety of spiritual writers offers breadth and depth of insight on the themes of this season.

Small Surrenders:  A Lenten Journey by Emilie Griffin—Short, simple reflections encourage us to move beyond the surface question What are you giving up for Lent? and to embrace small surrenders—“a series of large and small conversions, inner revolutions, that lead to our transformation in Christ.”

The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen—In his inimitable style, Henri Nouwen teaches us very practical ways to “fashion our own wilderness”—one of the great themes of Lent.

Show Me the Way:  Readings for Each Day of Lent by Henri Nouwen—With simple and utterly human expressions of longing and need, Nouwen helps us in a special way to cry out for God’s mercy as we enter into this holy season.  Especially if you are new to the practice of observing Lent, this is the guide book for you!

Eastertide: Prayers for Lent through Easter by Phyllis Tickle—Whatever disciplines we do or don’t choose for Lent, at the very least we need a way to pray. Taken from her larger work, The Divine Hours, this small paperback volume provides fixed hour prayers to carry you prayerfully through the season of Lent. Don’t leave home without it!

©Ruth Haley Barton, 2012. This article originally appeared as My Top 5 Resources for Lent in Christianity Today Magazine, February 2009. www.christianitytoday.com.  Feel free to share this list using the buttons below; please do not reproduce and distribute without permission.

“Every genuine expression of love grows out of a consistent and total surrender to God.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the most striking aspects of Dr. King’s life and ministry was his commitment to love as the most durable power in the world; he was an apostle of both love and action.^[i] He believed that every action we take in the world must be motivated by love—the creative force exemplified in the life of Christ and the most potent instrument available in the human quest for peace and security.^[ii] King was convinced that the strength to love our enemies—even in the face of injustice and oppression—is an absolute necessity for our survival.

Practical Mysticism

One could argue that Dr. King’s spirituality was a kind of practical mysticism which is simply the belief that God is real, that God can be encountered in the depths of one’s being, and that our human existence can be radically oriented and responsive to that Presence against all odds. The practical outworking of such encounters is that we are moved to loving action in the world that God loves.

By definition, all the great ones of our faith were mystics.  Mysticism is Moses hearing God’s voice in the wilderness and pushing through all manner of fear and resistance to do that thing he was convinced he could not do. It is Elijah on Mt. Horeb seeking a real encounter with God before returning to his call to be a prophet.  It is Paul getting knocked off his horse on the Damascus road and then sitting in silence for three days until God told him what to do next.  It is Peter seeing the vision of the unclean animals and changing the trajectory of his whole life to preach salvation to the Gentiles. It is John caught up in the spirit on the isle of Patmos receiving the vision that would become the book of Revelation.

It is Dr. King, afraid for his life and ready to slip out the back door of the Civil Rights movement, until he experienced God’s presence so profoundly that he could pick his head up off the kitchen table ready to reengage the battle.

Where the Real Action Is

As it turns out, love is where the real action is, spiritually speaking. Love in action is doing what God calls us to do when he calls us to do it—no matter how afraid we are or how ill-equipped we feel. It is the willingness to move beyond being concerned primarily for our own safety and survival to the confidence that comes from knowing that our real life is hidden with Christ in God no matter what happens to our physical life.

Love in action is doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right Spirit, completely given over to a Power that is beyond our own—even, and perhaps most especially, when the risks are very great. This kind of action is impossible without being radically in touch with that perfect love which casts out fear. Such risky action is impossible until we stop hesitating and give in to the authority of an invisible God.^[iii]

Real action is not about the absence of fear; it is the courage to look fear in face and master it through love. Dr. King (by his own admission) was often very much afraid but he chose courage which he defined as “the power of life to affirm itself in spite of life’s ambiguities.  This requires the exercise of a creative will that enables us to hew out a stone of hope from a mountain of despair.”^[iv]

This kind of love-directed action is not about our natural preferences.  As King once said, “I don’t march because I like it.  I march because I must.” It is not about our own personal safety; after King went public with his convictions, he was never safe again from a human point of view. It is not about what seems humanly possible. It is about saying yes to the God with whom all things are possible and doing whatever we do in union with God. “Neither God nor man will individually bring the world’s salvation. Rather, both man and God, made one in a marvelous unity of purpose through an overflowing love as the free gift of Himself on the part of God and by perfect obedience and receptivity on the part of man, can transform the old into the new.”^[v]

Love worth Celebrating

Dr. King’s commitment to the moral ethic of love enabled him to envision and articulate a way forward that involved meeting violence and oppression with nonviolent resistance, combatting real fear with profound courage, and confronting social evil with soul force.  This love is not to be confused with sentimental slop; it is creative, redemptive goodwill toward all people—including (and perhaps most especially) one’s enemies. In the depths of his being he knew that “returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.  Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”^[vi]

And so he chose the way of love—love in action—and that made all the difference.

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“Admitting the weighty problems and staggering disappointments, Christianity affirms that God is able to give us the power to meet them.  He is able to give us the inner equilibrium to stand tall amid the trials and burdens of life.  He is able to provide inner peace amid outer storms.  This inner stability of the [person] of faith is Christ’s chief legacy to his disciples.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is no question that the primary rhythm that sustained Dr. King for the long haul of his leadership was the rhythm of prayer and action, action and prayer.  He knew that God and God alone gives us the interior resources to bear the burdens and tribulations of life, especially those that come as we fulfill our call to serve others and to stand for what is right in this world. Had he not chosen to move back and forth between action and prayer—regularly tapping into a Source of soul-strength deeper than mere human activism—there is every evidence that he would have been swept away by fear and discouragement.  The forces of evil would have prevailed, at least for a little while longer.

Strengthened in the Inner Being
In a sermon entitled “Our God is Able” Dr. King recounts a very personal story of how an intimate encounter with God sustained him in the darkest hour of his fight for freedom and equality.

Almost immediately after the Montgomery bus protest had been undertaken, we began to receive threatening phone calls and letters in our home.  Sporadic in the beginning, they increased day after day.  At first I took them in my stride, feeling they were the work of a few hotheads who would become discouraged after they discovered that we would not fight back.  But as the weeks passed, I realized that many of the threats were in earnest.  I felt myself faltering and growing in fear.

After a particularly strenuous day, I settled in bed at a late hour…and was about to doze off when the telephone rang.  An angry voice said, “Listen, n@*#!, we’ve taken all we want from you. Before next week you’ll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery.” I hung up, but I could not go to sleep.  It seemed all my fears had come down on me at once. I had reached the saturation point.

I got out of bed and began to walk the floor.  Finally, I went to the kitchen and heated a pot of coffee.  I was ready to give up.  I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing to be a coward. In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had almost gone, I took my problem to God.  My head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud.  The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory.

“I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right.  But now I am afraid.  The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength, they too will falter.  I am at the end of my powers.  I have nothing left.  I have come to the point where I can’t face it alone.”

At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced him. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice, saying, “Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth.  God will be at your side forever.” Almost at once my fears passed from me.  My uncertainty disappeared.  I was ready to face anything.  The outer situation remained the same, but God had given me inner calm.

Three nights later, our home was bombed. Strangely enough, I accepted the word of the bombing calmly.  My experience with God had given me a new strength and trust.  I knew now that God is able to give us the interior resources to face the storms and problems of life.  Let this be our ringing cry…that there is a great benign Power in the universe whose name is God, and he is able to make a way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.  This is our hope for becoming better [people].  This is our mandate for seeking to make a better world.[i]

Transformed on the Edge
I share this account in its entirety because the emotions Dr. King experienced and the faith edge on which he found himself is an inevitability of any true call to God-directed action in the world.  Such action will always call us to face our fear and then move beyond it to the very edge of what we think we are capable of. And that is exactly where God wants to meet us.

Dr. King’s choice to orient himself towards God in the midst of the resistance that his action stirred up became a pivotal moment in his transformation as a leader. It solidified his calling, transformed his fear into a deep sense of calm, and gave him the strength to go on.  Were it not for his full engagement in the fight for justice and his grounded-ness in the life of prayer, he might never have had the kind of encounter with God that moved him beyond fear to deeper faith, transforming him at the deepest level of his being. The work that God is doing in us is always as important as the work God is doing through us.

We shall meet your physical force with soul force.  Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you… One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves.  We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr., Loving Your Enemies

This week  we celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—a leader whose presence on the earth was characterized by the strength of soul from which all anointed leadership emerges. Dr. King’s life was a powerful integration of prayer and real encounters with God coupled with a profound commitment to decisive and loving action in the world. For King, it was never prayer or activism. It was never being in God or doing something for God. It was never missional engagement with the world or contemplation of the presence of God within. It was both. All the time.  King was profoundly non-dualistic in this regard. “Life at its best,” he believed, “is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.”[i]

Prayer that Leads to Action
As we celebrate Dr. King’s leadership as a champion for justice, it is good to be reminded that it was his keen spiritual insight and attunement with the heart of God that made it possible for him to know what many Christians and other well-meaning individuals had somehow avoided knowing—that racism is an offense to the heart of God and contradicts the essence of the Gospel.  There is no longer Jew or Greek…slave or free…male and female; for all of you are one in Christ. (Galatians 3:28)  The soul force to which he often referred was the “force” of God-directed action motivated by love and emerging from the soul of a person who was in touch with the Spirit of God.

It was strength of soul that made it possible for King to live within the paradoxes inherent in a non-violent approach to confronting evil. “Through nonviolent resistance we shall be able to oppose the unjust system and at the same time love the perpetrators of the system.”[ii] This is just not easy to do and it was King’s spirituality that kept his activism grounded in such radical truth.  Without strength of soul it would have been impossible for him to live these truths himself, let alone lead others in it!

I’ve Been to the Mountain!
King’s encounters with God in times of prayer kept him in the game. His spiritual vitality was a powerful undercurrent that carried him beyond fear and concern for his own survival to the fulfillment of God’s purposes for him in his own generation.  The day before his assassination, he spoke passionately about being strengthened by what can only be described as a mystical experience of “going to the mountain” and gaining a spiritual perspective on his life and the cause he was championing.

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” he thundered, “but it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop.

“And I don’t mind.

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place.  But I’m not concerned with that now.  I just want to do God’s will. And he allowed me to go up to the mountain.  And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land.

“I may not get there with you.  But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!

“And I’m so happy tonight! I’m not worried about anything.  I’m not fearing any man!  Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”[iii]

Rooted and Grounded in Love
King’s leadership in the fight for racial justice was more than mere human activism; he understood it to be his destiny that history and God himself had thrust upon him. For him, action in the world was an out-pouring of God’s love through the life of an individual who was willing to step into the powerful flow of God’s purposes and step up to do what was his to do.  That action, which was met with severe disagreement and violent opposition, drove him to sink his roots deeper into the ground of his being which was God himself.

And that is where strength of soul comes from.

Where in your life do you struggle to hold the opposites of prayer and action in fruitful harmony?
Leave a comment below.

Pre-order Pursuing God’s Will Together from InterVarsity Press at a 40% discount: $12.00 + a one-time shipping and handling fee of $2.50; free shipping for orders of three or more!) You credit card will not be charged until the book ships. Offer good in U.S. only.

Check back here on the Transforming Center blog or follow us on twitter @TranformCnt we will soon be publishing the table of contents and book introduction.

“This book needs a warning label: ‘Content may be disruptive to your understanding of Christian life, leadership and community.’ Ruth Haley Barton has provided every Christian with an invaluable resource for discerning and fulfilling the purposes of God. In a world where Christians and Christian leadership and communities have largely succumbed to secular processes for decision making, Barton brings a clear, challenging and compelling call for a radical alternative. This book is not the product of a ‘theorist,’ but the mature distillation of Barton’s own journey into a life hid with Christ in God for the sake of others. This is a must-read for every Christian leader and leadership group, and a primer for every Christian.”
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., professor emeritus, Asbury Theological Seminary, and author of Invitation to a Journey and The Deeper Journey

“Ruth Haley Barton knows only too well that discerning God’s will requires a personal commitment to transformation as well as an openness to engage in a group process. In Pursuing God’s Will Together, she shows us in a systematic way how it’s done. Every Christian leader will benefit from such a practical approach to such an ancient practice.”
Albert Haase, O.F.M., author of This Sacred Moment

“Ruth Haley Barton has identified an important issue in spiritual leadership and in how we make decisions, revealing where our integrity as leaders lies. Do we really believe that God has something to say, by his Holy Spirit, in terms of what direction we take? Ruth does a great job of describing practices that can help teams become more adept at hearing God’s voice in the practical areas of leading and serving.”
Doug Nuenke, U.S. director, The Navigators

“It’s impossible to overstate how needed, valuable, timely and timeless this book is. It is as wise as Methuselah and as practical as a slingshot. Ruth has rendered a massive service to church leaders everywhere, and to all the churches they lead. Herein lies the remedy for the sad but common malady we see today: otherwise godly men and women pursuing God’s kingdom with worldly navigational equipment. I plan to buy a case load of Pursuing God’s Will Together upon its release and make it mandatory reading for all of our leaders. It can hardly come soon enough.”
Mark Buchanan, pastor, New Life Community Baptist Church, author of Spiritual Rhythm and Your Church Is Too Safe

“In Pursuing God’s Will Together [Ruth Haley Barton] weaves her own wisdom with others in bringing forth a beautiful tapestry of spirituality in community.”
Chuck Olsen, founder, Worshipful-Work, and author of Transforming Church Boards and Discerning God’s Will Together

“I like this book. It is wise, thoughtful, gracious, and a little bit disturbing – just like its author. If you are like me, you believe in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but you want to be wise and not presumptuous about knowing God´s will for your group. This book is a real gift to folks like us. It provides us with much more than simply a plan of action. You can use it yourself, but also it will be quite useful to you with your fellow decision makers, so that discerning God´s will together becomes an experience in spiritual growth for the whole team.”
John Yates, Rector, The Falls Church

“Pursuing God’s Will Together is a powerfully convicting and timely book for those of us who are fully aware that we are incapable of effective leadership apart from God’s wisdom and direction. How to discern God’s purposes individually and as a dynamic team is the genius of this compellingly creative call to kingdom movement. Ruth Haley Barton presents us with a proven–if at times painful–practice that can ultimately take our finite efforts to where our infinite God wants them to go.”
Harold B. Smith, President and CEO, Christianity Today International

“While there has been a revival of interest in spiritual disciplines for some time, there is precious little available about how to practice them in community. More specifically, there is almost nothing about helping Christian leaders discern God´s presence and activities together. That is, until now. With Pursuing God´s Will Together, Ruth Haley Barton–a recognized leader in spiritual formation–fills this need admirably. This is an important, unique book that will be sure to transform Christian corporate leadership from a pure business model to a more spiritually integrated approach. I highly recommend it.”
JP Moreland, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, and author of The God Question

Lectionary readings for Epiphany, January 6:  Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2: 1-12

“They set out; and there ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.  On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage.” Matthew 2:10, 11

Today is the feast of Epiphany—the day when Christians celebrate the journey of the wise men to find the Christ child and the showing forth of God’s glory in such an unexpected place. The arrival of the wise men in Bethlehem and the homage they paid when they found Jesus in the manger is the culminating event of the Christmas season. Their willingness to leave the familiar and embark on such a perilous journey invites us to our own journey of seeking, finding and encountering God in unlikely ways and in unlikely places.

As the Christmas season slips away and the trappings are stored for another year, the journey of the wise men speaks to us of those moments when we are not satisfied to hear other people’s reports of mysterious revelations.  Yes, we have heard news that Christ has come into the world but hearsay is not enough: we want to see and experience him for ourselves! This desire can, if we let it, open up a new kind of journey—one that is alive with the possibility of encountering the mystery of Christ in the unlikely places of our own lives.  We, too, can make choices to leave the familiar and follow the Light that is rising in our own hearts, leading us to that place of great joy.

Beckoning God—
who called the rich to travel toward poverty,

the wise to embrace your folly,

and the powerful to know their own frailty;

who gave strangers

a sense of homecoming in an alien land

and to stargazers

true light and vision as they bowed to earth—

we lay ourselves open to your signs for us…

Rise within us, like a star,
And make us restless
Till we journey forth
To seek our rest in you.

Kate Compston, Bread of Tomorrow

©Ruth Haley Barton, 2011. Feel free to share this article using the buttons below; please do not reproduce and distribute without permission.

Ruth Haley Barton (Doctor of Divinity, Northern Seminary) is founder of the Transforming Center. A teacher, spiritual director, and retreat leader, she is the author of numerous books and resources on the spiritual life including Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups (June 2012) and Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership.

God’s richest blessings to you in this New Year! As we begin 2012, my heart is full of gratitude for the faithful support of our friends in 2011. Through your commitment to prayer and generous giving, God has sustained us and enabled us to keep moving forward in response to his leading. This year we have been able to:

• Strengthen the souls of thousands of pastors and Christian leaders through eReflections, Transforming Resources®, our two-year Transforming Community® experience, spiritual direction with individuals and groups, speaking and on-site teaching for a variety of leadership groups.
• See entire churches and organizations clarify their commitment to an intentional focus on spiritual transformation so they can discern and do the will of God
• Begin teaching and equipping leaders to implement strategic approaches to spiritual transformation in their churches and organizations utilizing the Sacred Rhythms curriculum.
• Prepare to launch our first regional Transforming Community this spring
• Develop and introduce our new Leading a Transforming Church™ program which will provide the context for launching the Transforming Church™ network
• Launch a new website along with new communication strategies
• Hire a Director of Operations to help us do all this!

Ruth Haley Barton
Founder

Lectionary readings for December 25, 2011: Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1: 1-4,(5-12); John 1:1-14

“The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Good is the Flesh
by Brian Wren

Good is the flesh that the Word has become,
good is the birthing, the milk in the breast,
good is the feeding, caressing and rest,
good is the body for knowing the world,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the body for knowing the world,
sensing the sunlight, the tug of the ground,
feeling, perceiving, within and around,
good is the body, from cradle to grave,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the body, from cradle to grave,
growing and aging, arousing, impaired,
happy in clothing, or lovingly bared,
good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
longing in all, as in Jesus, to dwell,
glad of embracing, and tasting, and smell,
good is the body, for good and for God,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

© Brian Wren, as quoted in An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor (Harper One).