I saw a stable low and very bare, A little child in a manger. The oxen knew him, had him in their care. To men he was a stranger. The safety of the world was lying there And the world’s danger. Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907).
Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
The wise men’s dilemma; a life or death
… were we led all that way for Birth or death? There was a Birth certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places,...
He shall win all again
What hath man done that man shall not undo, Since God to him is grown so near akin? Did his foe slay him? He shall slay his foe. Hath he lost all? He all again shall win. Is sin his master? He shall master sin…. He is a path if any be misled; He is a robe, if any...
Finding God at the cross
Either I determine the place in which I find God, or I allow God to determine the place where he will be found. If it is I who say where God will be, I will always find there a God who in some way corresponds to me, is agreeable to me, fits in with my nature. But if...
Born to make us wild
A child is born, they cry, a child And he is Noble and not Mild (It is this child that makes them wild)… All noble mild children are brought home To the wicked king who has cast them down And ground their bones on the heavy stone. But the child that is Noble and...
Love nailed Jesus
O God, Nails would not have held your Son to the cross Had not love held him there. Make us truly thankful for his great love shown on the cross; And grant that it may fix and steady us In those situations and places Which we might happily desert. After...
A new small-rented lease please
Having been tenant long to a rich Lord, Not thriving, I resolved to be bold, And make a suit unto him, to afford A new small-rented lease, and cancel the old. In heaven at his manor I him sought: They told me there, that he was lately gone About some land, which he...
Christ’s passion
And now, O Father, mindful of the love that bought us, once for all, on Calvary's Tree, and having with us him that pleads above, we here present, we spread forth to thee that only Offering perfect in thine eyes, the one, true, pure, immortal Sacrifice. Look, Father,...
We need a suffering God
When this world’s pleasures for my soul sufficed, Ere my heart’s plummet sounded depths of pain, I called on reason to control my brain, And scoffed at that old story of the Christ. But when o’er burning wastes my feet had trod, And all my life was desolate with...
Jesus of the Scars
If we have never sought, we seek Thee now; Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars; We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow, We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars. The heavens frighten us; they are too calm; In all the universe we have no place....
The tree of salvation for me
Christ died for God and me Upon the crucifixion tree For God a spoken word For me a sword For God a hymn of praise For me eternal days For God an explanation For me salvation. Stevie Smith (1902-71),...
I notice the sign and wonder why
Some of us run, some loiter; Some of us turn aside To erect the Calvary That is our signpost, arms Pointing in opposite directions To bring us in the end To the same place, so impossible Is it to escape love…. R.S. Thomas (1913-2000), Mass for Hard Times,...