Issue 19: “As If They Were the Very Body”

"Poetry is a nightingale that sits in the darkness and sings"
-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Our mission at the Matthew 25 Initiative is to equip and sustain Anglicans serving alongside the vulnerable. The work of justice and mercy is often wondrous and also difficult. Holding beauty and naming pain and hope is what M25i does well. Walter Brueggeman writes, "A poem utters the unutterable and thinks the unthinkable." In places of brokenness, where much feels unutterable and unimaginable, we encounter Jesus. Continue with us in reflection and prayer through this series, "For the Soul," as poetry might offer Spirit soaked imagination.

Liezel Graham's "As If They Were the Very Body"speaks to the simplicity of incarnational love and sacramental theology lived in the grit of life. The work of mending must be marked by compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (the language of Colossians), whether towards those within our comfort zone or inconveniently and intentionally offered to those beyond our familiar circles. These "mending tools" of Christ's way can never be skipped, tossed, or set aside for some other end. They are the only way to mend the most painful, broken, and horror filled places of our world.

Note: Like all poetry, these words are meant to be read out loud at least two times through. So find a quiet room or step outside and declare these words with boldness!

As If They Were the Very Body
by Liezel Graham

….and isn’t this what heaven is?

and also, love?

thousands and thousands of small redemptions

playing out in ordinary homes, and in ordinary lives

—someone, somewhere, even right now in this very moment, deciding to hand out grace, and kindness.

as if they were the very body in need of it.

as if they were the very body waiting with breath drawn close, for what they are about to receive.

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Colossians 3:12, NIV

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. What might this poem be nudging in you?
2. Who do you know handing out grace and kindness?
3. Could you take a book to a prison this week or next to offer presence and kindness and possibly a way for relationship?
4. Could you visit the smaller at-risk elementary school that likely could use some kind of help, and offer to do any kind of service with humility, kindness, gentleness, and patience. 

At M25i we hope to inspire an ACNA that is known for its sacramental service of those who are most vulnerable in our society. What might it mean for you to join us in that mission?