God was big
In the Europe of old
His churches
Grand halls of largesse,
Held space for His presence.
His stories told
By artists
Paid for by the rich
The powerful, the newly converted,
And by the healthless needy.
The common stories held in windows
The birth of child
The pointless sacrificial death averted
The violent success of
Man over lion and man over giant.
The woman who kills a king
The favored one who births The Chosen One
And also the one who watches Him die
And then the woman
Who meets the Gardner.
The first of many recognitions
In the coming of the dove,
In the burning of the heart
In the breaking of the bread,
The touching of the wounds.
God was big
And His story was hope
The feeding of the hungry
The release of the captive
A new Kingdom on the horizon.
Religious palaces
Now empty of much life,
The faded frescoes reveal a past
While musicians play the chambers
To the echo of the present
And the nearly faithful
are lost, looking for the Kingdom
In their holiday photos
Not in the windows or on the walls,
nor in the eyes of their neighbors.
This was great, JW!