Tag: Poem

Recently I was invited to write a spoken word for a church, in response to the “Beatitudes” from Matthew chapter 5. These are the words I wrote, spoken…

To mouths untasting and eyes that may seem blind:
Here we pause to find – living Words of Salt and Light to help us do more than understand
Living in a land, bland and shadowed
We hear the call to Kingdom Living
Giving that which we could never create, as fate finds itself defeated
By the One who interceded – Christ speaks still today
Through those standing in the fray, living in the Spirit empowered Way
He has revealed
Both those who have been healed, and those desperate still for healing
We find Kingdom revealing in these – more than simply platitudes
We call them the beatitudes
Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who’ve come near it but never quite arrived
Or thrived the way this world pretends.
Their desire transcends the offers of this realm, yearning for Jesus on the Throne
His Kingdom is their own.
Blessed are those who moan, and mourn,
Suffering – born of living against the norm, and weathering the storms too fierce to be calmed
Theirs is the balm of Gilead, with Jeremiah we seek
As we continue to hear Jesus speak
We hear him whisper – “Blessed are the meek.”
Those who quiet their own voice enough to hear, when Jesus himself is near,
It becomes clear the noises of this world are often simply distracting,
Acting is if they could offer new birth, but theirs is not the earth,
it is passed down from Father to child – to those He reconciled.
Blessed are those with a Divinely wild
hunger and thirst – Those for whom a burst
of spiritual enthusiasm could never pass
They will not only amass what is sought and could never be bought by religion,
but be filled overflowing by His provision.
Blessed are those who show mercy and compassion
Beyond the trends and fashion – to sacrificial loving, extra mile and going aboving
For they will receive the same – in the Name of Jesus
The one who frees us to be Blessed as those pure in heart,
Those who would depart and turn from old ways, offering their days as a sacrifice of praise
To break through this world’s facade – for they will see the face of God.
Blessed are those who not only cause violence to cease, or slow its’ increase,
But actively seek to create new peace
For they will not only hear applause begin – they will be called His kin
Children of the most high, those responding to the cry of oppression
Those who question the injustice of a system so broken
Not just a token representation, but as a citizen of a nation known as New Creation
But know the world will not always embrace, any member of the human race
that presents a case
For repentance.
Still – blessed are those who struggle for what is right, for yours is the light of the Kingdom.
As you bring them all I’ve inspired, you may still find some wired
to view my invitation to reconcile as something vile or offending
Rejoice – for I’ll never stop sending
my love for them, Just as I have for you.
So many have come before, as I continue to restore my grand redemption
There is no exemption.
Only places and moments in need
Oppressed who continue to bleed
Hungry mouths to feed
Systems built on greed
Wheat overgrown with weed

But through You – I intercede.