A poem on Ash Wednesday (in light of the imposition)

"Restoration or Bust" No ethereal home for me. I’ll be flesh and blood and grist, as stout as a tree, as barbaric as the kiss from the bisclavret. Earth is here to stay—no cataclysmic implosion, no end of space and time. I’ll be growing cabbages, without weeds, tippling wine. Dirty fingernails will be my lot; looking to the sky, the laconic cowboy, lost in thought. The final Easter morn, hardly rapturous, will have no meeting in the clouds; yet the triumphal procession proceeds right on schedule, right through town. We agrarians, I suppose, will lay down our fronds, then it’s back to pruning and planning, the late-November span, the eggplants and pepper, the slow grape and the aching hand. Our soil, dark and nutritious; the weather, bright but cold, lends vigor to our toil, renewal to our...

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In the Hope of His Glory

One of the most beautiful passages of the Psalms found itself eloquently translated in the seventeenth century: “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early” (Ps. 46:4–5, KJV). The allusion here is simple; the charge, direct. The stream is probably Shiloah, which flowed from the Gihon spring into Jerusalem, God’s city. The stream and where it flowed encompassed two of the most important aspects of God’s covenant with Israel: the monarchy of David (see 1  Kings 1:33–34, 45) and the city of faith. Thus by affirming God’s salvation, the psalmist warns those who would not rest upon divine protection, opting instead...

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The Freedom of Fear

Cain offered grain faithlessly, and his sacrifice was meant to appease (see Gen. 4:1–6; Heb. 11:4). His concern was to placate the demands of his creator. Homage was a trivial thing to him, a mere formality to be dispensed with so he could get back to his daily routine. He gave his grain out of fear, and fear alone. His duty lacked love and delight. Yet, fear is not a bad thing. To fear God is to begin on wisdom’s journey (Ps. 11:10; Prov. 9:10). Sometimes groveling is an appropriate reaction — especially for Christians. But maybe like Cain, we struggle to believe in the superabundant grace of God? Even though we seem to ignore the fact that we can displease him (Heb. 12:3–11), more often than not we seem to be suspicious of the bounty of God’s grace. We, too, attempt to secure...

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