Order, order

Doing some preparatory Lenten reflection. You'll find another offering over on the sermon blog:

Risking Jesus

Order, order, order
We’re big on our order.
Everything carefully arranged,
Each word skilfully chosen
For maximum impact.
No margin for error
This may be the only chance we get
The only encounter possible
So lets make it count.
There’s that old urgency about the gospel
That we need to get a hold of
Its now or never
We don’t want to be responsible for those left behind
In the final paroussia
If they don’t hear that challenge to choose from us
Then who else?
What arrogance
What self importance
If it really was down to us
Heaven would be a pretty empty place
Thankfully, the spirit does not rely on us
Does not leave things to that slim chance
But eddies and swirls, even upsets our carefully planned liturgies
and skilfully crafted sermons
and then, to crown it all,
sometimes even Jesus shows up
and then there’s real chaos
the kind of chaos that embarrasses us
the sort that makes us squirm
Because we don’t leave room for that kind of excitement
That unpredictability
It can’t be controlled
And it can’t be managed
But threatens to overthrow all we’ve worked so hard to protect
Just as easily overturned as were the tables in the temple
And we don’t like it any more than do the merchants
Whose livelihoods were threatened
For we too stand to lose
When Jesus shows up
To show all our strivings for what they are really worth
We too have fenced in that house of prayer
And narrowed down that field
Wherein the Spirit is allowed to operate
And we do not like risk
It’s a four letter word
Sullied and shamed and feared
Risk Jesus? – not us.