A willy wagtail, was it?
Perhaps, but no time to check What Bird Is That?
as it wags its way through lanes at lights,
a truck here turning, there a foot
compressing asphalt.
Yes,
I have seen its tail – proud tuft of feathers –
pluckily braving the afternoon rush,
and seen it hover, tentative,
just above Old Geelong Road,
as though not quite prepared to fly.
Sometimes it slips
beneath my sight, and then
it darts, as though to dare the traffic.
None destroy it, yet most – unaware –
continue changing lanes as they
would on any normal Friday.
Stationary, I see its tail
greet the traffic, weekend-bound;
such smallness seems almost defiant here.
Is grace defenceless as we drive?
No: cars resume, as green returns,
yet willy wags the tail, and faith
skips the traffic’s plight.
Confessional Hymn, After Gavin Bryars’ “Cadman Requiem” (Cornucopia of Heaven)
Confessional Hymn
After Gavin Bryars, “Cadman Requiem”
We were not there when stars were flung
wide, wide, across the vast expanse.
We were not there when hearts were knit,
when breath was breathed inside.
We were not there when plans were made,
when laws in hearts were broken.
Yet we were there to feel death’s sting
and feel the plan’s undoing.
We were there when sparks flew up
and fire scorned the fickle ground,
when sound was lost and wings spun out
and everything was falling.
Ours were hearts un-tuned to sounds
of life and perfect leading.
Ours were rebel schemes which blew
the hope out of the sky.
Though stars may fail and hearts implode:
still, still Creator God, uphold.
O kyrie eleison, Christ –
have mercy on us all.
Catechism 39
With what attitude should we pray?
With love, perseverance, and gratefulness; in humble submission to God’s will, knowing that, for the sake of Christ, he always hears our prayers.
(New City Catechism)
And He does,
always:
no unjust judge, unmindful of man,
no stony indifference
when bread is required,
no doors shut at evening,
no scorpions for fish,
but fatherly constant
extravagant
care.
Approach now with confidence:
His throne beckons near.
Canticle: Do Not Harden Your Hearts (The Cornucopia of Heaven)
Wikimedia Commons
Canticle: Do Not Harden Your Hearts
After J.S. Bach, “BWV 90: Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende”
Psalm: Come… (The Cornucopia of Heaven)
Psalm: Come…
After Felix Mendelssohn, “Der 95. Psalm: Komm, laßt uns anbeten”
Psalm: Creation (The Cornucopia of Heaven)
Wikimedia Commons
Psalm: Creation
After Joseph Haydn, “Die Schöpfung: Erster Teil”
Why all these bodies, and why should persons be able to communicate with each other? And why trees and earth and water and fire and wind and lions and lambs and lilies and birds and bread and wine?
(John Piper, This Momentary Marriage)
Collects: Sparrows (After Knut Nystedt and Anathallo)
Collects: Sparrows
After Knut Nystedt, “Prayers of Kierkegaard, Pt. 3: Great Are You, O God” and Anathallo, “Sparrows”
I.
When under the arch of heaven I stand surrounded by the wonders of creation, I rapturously and adoringly praise your greatness, you who lightly hold the stars in the infinite and concern yourself fatherly with the sparrow…
(Søren Kierkegaard, Christian Discourses)
So praise:
the roof is gone;
we behold the heavens.
Stars break through at night,
the sun
declares the day too bright for us –
we praise
and trust,
as birdsong breaks
into the sanctuary quiet.
Even sparrows
find a home…
Though altars burn
yet nothing ever
binds the hands
of Him who holds the stars
and cares
a Father, for His little flock
and opens wide the sky to show
the openness of loving hands
and
even cares
for sparrows, even
clothes the grass
with dew…
II.
…if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
(Luke 12:28)
Sparrows whistle –
grass is buzzing –
day is gaining
heat and light.
Sing O sing –
sing all creation,
sing guitar strings –
sing.
Whisper, beaks,
and dance, small talons,
sing and trust –
the ground now breaks
with momentum
into day
and as you hope, small sparrows,
for these
crowns of leaves and songs
of breezes: how
much more,
O you
little-faith-ones,
weak and wilting,
how much more
will He crown you?
Psalm: Chorale (The Cornucopia of Heaven)
Early on Saturday morning, the fire brigade was called to my church – a 150-year-old heritage-listed building on the corner of one of Melbourne’s most iconic streets, and the building which my fiancée and I recently booked to celebrate our marriage. That day, the Bible reading my church family was looking at in our devotional times was Luke 12:22-34, a passage which I, by pure coincidence, found myself writing about in my poem for that day. No-one could possibly have known how pertinent that passage would be to us. Our church still stands, but we will not be able to worship together there for a year at least. It is a time of mourning for all of us. Yet, when we gathered together yesterday as a whole church community in St Paul’s Cathedral and read Luke 12:22-34 again, we were reminded of the glorious truth of God’s promises to His people. This world’s treasures, even church buildings, will all be destroyed one day. But our Father has been pleased to give us the kingdom. Today I am posting two poems to reflect on this truth. Here is the first.
Psalm: Chorale
After J.S. Bach, “BWV 69: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele”
This morning
I awoke to a harpsichord of birdthrum,
the air alight with strings, a wall
of horns against the trees
and phoenixes in
the distance praised in trumpet-hope.
Toices twirled and twined around
the fretful day, where fire
(and moth and rust)
destroy the treasures of our day.
Singing like the newly born, the birds
cared nothing for death.
Every day new,
they promised what no night will tarnish:
a day of every harmony resolved
and hope that fire cannot take.
Catechism 38
What is prayer?
Prayer is pouring out our hearts to God in praise, petition, confession of sin, and thanksgiving.
(New City Catechism)
Sometimes with words, sometimes
with hearts groaning,
fists shaking,
a silent rumble.
Sometimes with hope, sometimes
in anguish, with
little to hold,
save Prayer’s ladder.
Sometimes with sight, sometimes
desperate, aching,
every breath, Why?
but still holding.
Always faith.
Psalm: Lilies (The Cornucopia of Heaven)
Wikimedia Commons
After Antonio Vivaldi, “Le Quattro Stagioni – La Primavera: II. Largo”
Creator God, whose praise and power are proclaimed by the whole creation: receive our morning prayers, we pray…
(A Prayer Book for Australia)
Consider how the lilies open –
Watch them enter into light…
Solomon
in all his splendour
was not robed like these.
Consider, also fleeting sparrows:
not gathering, not daring night.
Watch sparrows dance
across these flowers –
watch as dew sings praise.
O sing, and be in quiet hours
witnesses of lily-joy..
Consider how the lilies open –
watch, and praise Him
in light…
The Consolations of Writing 