Re-alignment

 Matthew 23:1-3

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.

When our words are removed from our actions

Christ offers us a way back

When we preach love

and do not practice it

When we exhort courage

and  do not embody it

When we call for compassion

and forget to exercise it

Christ offers us a way back

A re-alignment of sorts

that brings together those part of ourselves

that have become disjointed

Christ offers a way back

Re- membering and making whole.

No place for a baby

 Matthew 23:27-28

Matthew 23: 27-28

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

It is so easy to cover up the evil

to hide away the wickedness 

We focus on one story fleetingly before moving on to the next

News becomes old so quickly

and the shock of terror and violence settles

and becomes a grief that we are impotent to assuage

Conflict in the land that we call holy draws our attention

from all the other places reduced to rubble

and we are urged to take sides 

and condemn wars that have been years in the making.

Meanwhile refugees search for shelter, for clean water, for food,

for a way out 

This Advent, we long, not for a baby

but for the Prince of Peace to be born

As we watch and we wait, may we begin to see

how we might make room in our lives

to welcome all those who flee 

and how to make peace in our communities

and throughout the world 

Practising what we preach today and every day.

(Liz Crumlish)