It remains to be seen how memorable this Holy Week will be for my wife and me. A bit house bound in recovering from surgery, doing church anywhere from Palm Sunday through Easter is, at best, a very remote possibility. It's been strange times…times I've been doing my best to be quiet, reflective, listening for the Spirit.
Currently, it's the middle of the night here in Colorado. The wind is whipping around outside. My wife is slumbering peacefully beside me. I can't sleep from feeling miserable in the supposed healing process…so I'm spending the time pondering. My mind keeps going back to a poem I did read this past Sunday.
In an earlier post I stated that this Lenten season has found me paying the most attention to this traditional/liturgical series of days than ever before in my life. Nothing earth shaking has come from the time…but the waiting for the fresh winds of the Spirit have been times of slow, quiet renewal that I have enjoyed. It has been good. It has been a time of many questions…few answers. That has been OK…for a change.
For the last three days I've been pondering the three questions in Sunday's poem. Part of me wishes for sleep right now…but these questions have persisted in the quiet of this moment. Palm Sunday has turned into Palm Wednesday.
A Psalm for Palm Sunday
…by Joseph Bayly
…from Psalms of My Life
King Jesus
why did you choose
a lowly ass
to carry you
to ride in your parade?
Had you no friend
Who owned a horse
--a royal mount with spirit
fit for a king to ride?
Why choose an ass
small unassuming
beast of burden
trained to plow
not carry kings.
King Jesus
why did you choose
me
a lowly unimportant person
to bear you
in my world today?
I'm poor and unimportant
trained to work
not carry kings
--let alone the King of Kings
and yet you've chosen me
to carry you in triumph
in this world's parade.
King Jesus
keep me small
so all may see
how great you are
keep me humble
so all may say
Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord
not what a great ass he rides.
Wes this is the perfect poem to meditate on as I head off for 5 days of solitude.
Hope your recovering will be speedy.
Posted by: stephanie | March 23, 2005 at 07:16 AM
Wow...I'll be doing some pondering myself over that one.
Posted by: Deb | March 23, 2005 at 09:02 AM