Cleave (Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost)

Then Orphah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her.
(Ruth 1:14)

Many and wide are the roads you may take,
Bitter and sweet is the journey;
Many the gods you may may bow down before,
Legion the altars to worship.

Blessed the path that’s hardest to take,
Sweetest the fruit with most poison;
Many the laws and many commands;
Few there are who can obey them.

Simple the path but lifelong the death
That they die, those who choose to walk it;
Simple the choice and single the Lord,
But many the sirens who beckon.

Rich is the grace and vast are the hands
That hold all sojourners within them;
Paid is the cost and firm is the end,
Demanding your all and all giving.