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Preachin' One

It's three quarters-past 10 on a Sunday


The regular crowd shuffles in

The usuals all have their special seats

Sit there once; just don't do it again!

And the ushers have handed out bulletins

And told you to silence your phone


We're here sharing a prayer we call brokenness


‘Cause it's better than prayin' alone

La la la, di da da
la la, di da da da dum

Tell us a tale, you're the preachin' one


Tell us a tale today


Well, we're all in the mood for a parable


And you've got us leanin' that way. 

It's a pretty good crowd for a holiday


And the treasurer gives me a nod


But he knows it's NOT me

they've been comin' to see


'Cause they wanna get closer to God

And the folks in the pews are a happy lot


Like family, they're quick to share cheer

And they all sit up straight

and throw cash in the plate,

And say, "Rev, what are you doin' here?"

La la la, di da da
la la, di da da da dum

Saint Paul was a traveling evangelist

who never had time for a wife

He wrote congregations

from all sorts of nations

Teaching grace as a new way of life

We are gathered to kindle a memory


Though it seems we've forgotten the plot 


So it hurts and it heals

When it gets in our feels


But this story is all that we've got.

Tell us a tale you're the preachin' one


Tell us a tale today


Well, we're all in the mood for a parable


And you've got us leanin' that way

Now Joan, in the choir, is a friend of mine


She sings from her heart so free


She listens a while

And she's quick with a smile


Though there are parts she just won't let us see

She passes me a note as the service ends

"Your sermons offer sacred space, 

But the life that I lead is so far from that 

Please pray I can live and breathe grace."

Oh, la la la, di da da
la la, di da da da dum

Tell us a tale you're the preachin' one


Tell us a tale today


Well, we're all in the mood for a parable


And you've got us leanin' that way

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Insecurious

It's that limited curiosity

 overwhelmed with fear,

  keeping us from

   opening ourselves wide

    to the universe's wild imaginings;

     so hunkered down

      in our own little world,

       trying to hang onto

        and control everything possible,

         that grace dances

          right under our noses

           completely unnoticed,

  

            love sings harmony

             we cannot hear,

  

              life wafts beyond us.

               © 2016 Todd Jenkins

Sloth

Photo by Kendall Cox

 What if the 1950s

weren't the church's heyday

but instead, were its days of sloth,

when there was no competition

and all we had to do

was open our doors and everyone

would come, because there was

nowhere else to go and nothing else

 to do on Sunday morning?

What if we need to develop

a completely different model

for being church in a world

long past the simplicity

of unquestioned exclusivity?

What if the torn fabric

of our culture has much less

to do with its failure

to rigidly adhere to our

own particular list

of biblically extracted behaviors,

and is much more about

our own lack of enthusiasm

for practicing grace together

in communities where all have both

a seat and voice at the table?

What if the church's purpose

is to equip members

to reflect hope, share love,

and nourish a hungry and thirsty world

with heaping servings

of dignity, humility, and respect?

What if we actually put

our time, energy, hearts, and money

into doing just that, instead

of trying to figure out how

to get back to the "good old days"?

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

As If

Sculpture by Sterling Goller-Brown

Two logs were set afire.

  Some closed their eyes,

    minding their own business,

      as if wood wasn't really burning,

    while others critiqued, judged,

  and blamed the logs themselves,

as if it were spontaneous combustion.

Then five more logs were

  tossed into the fire.

    As the incendiary heat rises,

      it's difficult for any trees

        to deny the inferno.

      We can keep thumping matches

    across the strike-pad, or

  we can dig trenches around

our own little grove, or

we can speak and act with conviction,

  so that no more fuel is added,

    no more logs are lost.

What's it going to be?

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Too High

The cost is outrageous

for all these priceless lives,

secretly calculated in hearts too small

to hold Love's grand truth;

too scared to see

all of us have the same value;

too busy counting and comparing

to feel the ground beneath us quaking,

the skies above us leaking.

We shrink because we sense difference,

recoil with superiority's confidence,

while the universe expands and

diversifies, and the holy one weeps.

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Heartspeak

Ichawaynochaway Creek, Newton, GA

When, "Our thoughts and

prayers are with you."

becomes the end and

not the means,

we have lost

our spiritual momentum.

   Too often, we see prayer

   as a request for God

   to move, so we don't have to.

      The core of prayer is

      a shifting of hearts;

      primarily our own.

         We speak our angst,

         cry our frustration,

         groan the unspeakable;

      and in the stillness between

      syllables, tears, and breaths,

      a different note vibrates.

   Maybe it's a new note,

   perhaps a dissonant one;

   but, always, it calls us

   toward the circle.

Whatever else we imagine

it to be, prayer is a request

for inclusion in the sacred journey.

If you're willing to move,

but don't know where or how,

let your heart speak.

The rest is not up to you,

but you will likely

find yourself up to it.

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Looking Glass

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

Once we identify the image 

in the mirror 

as the single common denominator 

in all our problems, 

all our relationships, 

and all our stories, 

as well as the only person, place, 

or thing over which we have 

even an illusion of control, 

we have found the beginning point 

for healthy relationships. 

The next step requires putting down 

the looking glass and giving ourselves 

to make a difference 

in someone else's life; 

neither offering to fix, advise, 

or change them, nor pretending 

to be or do anything more or less 

than who we really are and that 

of which we're truly capable. 

Don't wait for perfection or 

understanding to begin, 

and do not demand either of these 

in yourself or others along the way. 

Lead with your heart, 

and let grace map 

each step of the way. 

Today is always a new day 

in each journey. 

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Short

One of the churches I drive past regularly on my way to and from work recently had this message on its sign: 

Time is short,

hell is hot. 

Jesus is coming,

ready or not. 

The sign's sentiments seem to indicate:

(1) an attempt to scare heaven into passersby; and

(2) our religious-cultural generation's focus on securing an individual spot in a divinely favored afterlife. 

In my experience, you can scare the hell out of people, at least briefly, but heaven - or more significantly, love - cannot be instilled by fear, even for a little while. 

When fear of afterlife outcomes becomes the starting point and the focus, at the expense of living the grace of Jesus Christ in the here and now, congregations and institutional religion will continue to decline. The church that nurtures faith in the long run will be the one that offers hope and grace to a world of people who have been declared unacceptable by a culture of judgment and competition. 

My sign would offer this alternative:

Life is short, 

live what you've got. 

Grace abounds,

 noticed or not. 

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Old Stone Fort Archaeological Park
Manchester, TN

River

Shall we cry you a river

  with the tears of our angst

    over our continued refusal

      to put Mother Earth

      and her life-blood

    on equal footing

  with exploitative

economic enterprises?

The collective lament

  of those who recognize

    our systemic rape

    and plunder of creation

  cannot restore,and may not

ameliorate this abuse,

but cheek’s glistening trail

  can remind us all

    of the universe's plaintive call

  to tread gently, leaving

ego, fear, and greed behind,

thinking long-range,

  recognizing and living

    our interdependence.

  Will it be enough?

Will we listen?

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

For you

Photo by Becky Johnson

Here we gather,

nothing like a museum

for the righteous, but

rather, a healing place

for those in search of grace.

   Here we rise,

   joining our voices

   with a long line of dreamers,

   cairn-stacking narratives

   of resurrection against

   a sea of indifference,

   hoping against hope

   that love will win.

Here we go,

sent out into

valleys of despair,

reflecting the forgiveness

we have received,

wrapping the whole world

in the gentleness with which

we've been covered.

         Here we are,

         for you.

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

eNEMY

In our interpersonal lives

we are constantly creating conflict

as well as being drawn

into conflict created by others.

  Exacerbation occurs when blindness,

  ego, denial, and indifference

  cause each of us to blame the other,

  refusing both responsibility and

  engagement in remediation.

    When this sort of behavior

    is practiced on a societal

    or international level,

    we are directly participating

    in the creation and escalation

    of our own enemies,

    whether our differences are

    political, economic, or other.

  As long as weaponization

  and violence are both our initial

  and primary tools for interaction,

  there will be no peace

  and no amelioration.

We'll either have to detonate

all the weapons and

outlive all the warmongers, or

genuinely commit ourselves

to something more magnanimous

before there'll be hope

for a different outcome.

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Within

The gift and miracle

of Emmaus is not disappearance,

but presence; not road presence

or table presence,

which were temporary,

but presence internal and eternal.

  The physical Christ of conversation –

  the material messiah of flesh-and-blood –

  is no longer with us, because he is in us.

    Eucharist is our regular reminder

    of this gift; our invitation

    to re-member – to reconfirm

    our membership –

    into the body of Christ.

      © 2016 Todd Jenkins

Bedrock

Old Stone Fort Archaeological Park
Manchester, TN

We need to uncreate the world

  that desires more for less,

    no matter the cost

      to planet and other people;

        the world that has profit

      as its bottom line, and

    views the rest of creation

  as a means to the ends

of accumulation and consumption.

My hunch and experience are

  that most of us can

    only see this necessity

      clearly in the context

        of our profound brokenness.

      Grace, love, and

    our deepest interconnection

  are most visible when all

of our faux identities crumble.

If the rest of the world is going

  to recognize and hunger for this,

    we, as a community of believers,

      must become sentinels of hope

    instead of wagging fingers of judgment,

  fountains of grace, rather

than fires of condemnation.

        We must confess our own

      shambled lives and live

    from a foundation of grace

  before God's mercy will ever

ring true for the world. 

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Small

Photo by Linzi Anderson

Fear is afraid of everyone and

everything, including itself,

ever shrinking into a smaller box,

but pretending to loom large,

with ferocious bark

and inflated posturing.

   The small minded and hearted

   seek to divide the world

   into "us" and "them",

   never quite convinced

   that you or I or anyone else

   fully belong to "us";

      ever ready to banish us all

      to permanent Themville.

      But somewhere beneath

      the fearful veneer lies

a lonely, hungry soul,

never willing to admit it,

but desperately longing

to be invited into sacred "we"

and even holy "one".

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Perspective

The chasm between human and divine

is largely dug by perspective.

Beyond the realization

of the limits of our own,

God approaches with our

recognition of someone else's.

   The holy is infused when

   our reality is secure enough

   to avoid the dizziness

   of multiple focal points.

Anchored in the self of God,

we can see, hear, smell, touch,

and even taste the universe's complexity

without needing to validate

one perspective over others.

© 2016 Todd Jenkins