some texts for Maundy Thursday

Jesus Laments Over Jerusalem

Jerusalem!

Jerusalem the place where

the prophets are killed,

the truth tellers stoned,

the peace bringers torn apart.

Jerusalem!

I long to be to you a mother hen caring for my brood.

I long to gather your children together.

I long to give you peace and bring you healing.

Jerusalem!

Will you not heed my invitation?

Must you continue to tear yourself apart?

Are you not willing to listen?

Jerusalem!

You will be left desolate.

I leave you now.

Even when you shout,

‘Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’

your praise will soon fade to numbed silence

and your joy will make way for tears.

Enough Faith?

They have come so far.

If only they knew

how close we are to the end;

how just beyond

the dawn of their perception

lies the secret of salvation.

We have come so far.

If only you knew

how I have longed to drink

deep from the cup of obedience;

yet now there is no satisfaction

in the bitter dregs of an unanswered question.

I have come so far.

If only I knew.

Is my faith enough

to bear me on the bough

of death’s destruction

and beyond to resurrection?

Gethsemane

All this effort,

Is it worth it?

What difference my death?

What possible difference can it make in this world?

My enemies gather in the dark shadows,

I feel their antipathy, their anxious, excited anticipation,

I sense their incensed, self-righteous, unholy expectation.

All this effort,

Is it worth it?

What difference my death?

What possible difference can it make in this world?

My friends sleep in the dark shadows,

I feel their confusion, their careful words and worried glances.

I sense their fear, their failing faith falling into despair.

All this effort,

Is it worth it?

What difference my death?

What possible difference can it make in this world?

My God, are you there in the shadows?

I feel your prompting, parental prodding towards promise and duty,

I sense your pain, contained in this bitter cup you urge me to drink.

All this effort,

Is it worth it?

What difference my death?

What possible difference can it make in this world?

Here I am, here, deep in the shadows.

I feel your strength, flowing as an offering through my fear,

I sense there will be more, I choose the cup, its contents and its cost.