Taking up a cross

Matthew 10:34-39

Not Peace, but a Sword

 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

 For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter- in- law against her mother- in- law;

 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Taking up a cross

Losing a life

What language is this

that sounds so foreign

from Jesus' lips?

Choosing God over family

seems to go against the grain

of this lover of justice

and prophet of peace.

Hard choices

Harsh words

uttered with love

but shot through

with a disturbing, restless Spirit

who shakes the foundations

and rakes over the ashes

of the order we thought we knew.

Spirit of God

unfettered

stirring up a restlessness

we cannot quite assuage

but which we know

will only be stilled

when the order we know

lies in the ruins

of a chaos caused

by love lived out

in the practice of justice.