There is nothing like grief
To break open your theology
Which just might need to be broken open
It is too small
Has not made room for suffering
Which the world is full of
Has made God into a tribal god
Instead of the Creator of all
Whose name is Love
Who holds us all together
Every one of us and every living thing
Hold this grief and broken theology
Until it lands in a more spacious place
That includes all
Send no one to hell
Only into the arms of Love
Haunted
We are haunted by the brutal cost of our redemption
Images of the One
Broken for us
Flashing across our waking minds
The blood everywhere
Poured out for us
Communion is a haunting
Remember me
© Julie Clark
Waiting for Easter
All we have are words
And the grief that overwhelms us
Hope is gone
We saw with our own eyes
Our grief tells us
He is dead
Yet
We have words
We will wait
With our grief by the tomb
© Julie Clark
When the church became a building
She forgot her founder’s call
She chose instead brick and mortar
to build herself a wall
The doors she built
Locked some out, others in
Proclaimed who was holy
And who was still in sin
She lit the candles
Said it was time to pray
Blew out the lights
Now time to go away
She is made of salt and light
Her stones, they are alive
You cannot keep her in a box
If she is to going to thrive
Her glory is far greater
Than four walls can hold
She is to be a city
Shining bright as gold
She is to be a healer
For weary, lost, and sore
A comfort to the broken
And oh so much more
When the church became a building
She made a room for strife
When outsiders didn’t fit her mold
She crushed their heart and life
Church you are not a building
You’re Christ’s body and His bride
You’re His hands, feet, and heartbeat
The love He cannot hide
© 2013 Julie Clark
Redemption
Taking broken pieces of pottery
Once beautiful in their wholeness
Now scattered in the ground
Found and gathered
Painstakingly pieced together
Into a magnificent mosaic
The Connection
Love is the strong bond that grows and tightens
Our connections with one another
It is tested frequently
And when the result is acceptance
And the choice is to continue to love
The bond becomes ever stronger
Love gives us the desire to know the beloved
To see the one loved in a true and forgiving light
This knowledge means I know to some degree
The unhealed pain in the heart
That drives the madness
We all have at times
Yet, choose again to love
© 2011 Julie Clark
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