Reflection for a meeting

‘Talinoa’ dialogue tableau from WCC. NB equal numbers of men and women in this crop

God Sustainer

Word made flesh

And Wild Wind Untamed

The signs are out in the open

Earth’s groaning loud and clear

The forecasts superseded .

We are in a crisis.

Yet churches still ponder the dancing of angels on  pinheads.

We wring our hands and say

with such piety

how good it will be 

when finally we get round to it

when desks are clear

to hear the Voice 

the poor/youth/women/Earth/ Voice-

still insulated in tokenism

still boxed up as an issue

long since screaming anyway.

We are Moses too concerned with sheep

to waste time on blazing bushes.

But things have changed. 

Christ’s gone ahead of us.

The Crisis has united us

whether we like it or not

and there’s real Emergency, 

even if we haven’t declared it.

The time for anger, lament, and panic is short;

the time to choose despair

or courage, hope and joy 

is now.

is for our lives

for Good

with Christ incarnate in the Earth

without whom we are truly futile

with whom… who knows what?

thank God

Amen.