I scribbled this on the back of an envelope on my recent trip to Portland.
The Crucial
Be supple on things not crucial;
the cross alone is cause
for controversy fruitful
over Providence's laws.
Seek not a thing of scandal;
do nothing in your way
to give your foes a handle
over what you do or say.
In this world of stumbling blindness,
the way is rocky-rough,
so know, in your God-graced kindness:
the cross is scandal enough.
In the darkness of passion's midnight,
in the memory of the rods,
for scandal you have no true right;
that right alone is God's.
Be supple on things not crucial,
that weekend of amaze
is, if we are truthful,
enough for all of your days.
From Good Friday in its darkness
through the day in sorrow's tomb,
to Easter's living redress,
our birthing from the womb:
the crucial time's our moment,
God's scandal in the world,
heaven's kingdom's foment,
when the death-knot was uncurled.
When they try to make polemic,
one answer alone can we give,
this scandal to truth endemic:
God died, God rose, God lives!
