Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Luke 10:17-20

The Sent-ahead

We do not know them,
these unnamed recruits
passing muster leaving their bean crop to the Johnson grass
and their dead to rot.
These are the sent ahead followers,
complete, convinced,
brought to the front lines in a crash recruitment drive
trained to call down God like sheep
making house calls on wolves
in yet another assault by their leader 
on the dyslexia of common sense.

It's the times.
There's this thing hanging in the air 
that cannot be deciphered
by means of the sanctioned orthodoxies.
It is too near town,
too high, too large, 
too near the ground to be ignored.
Across the blue-black air fleeing demons crackle
as his advance guard calls them out -
heaven can no longer suffer their burden.
The kingdom licks at the square
in a downdraft that sends people for cover.

From a distance
Jesus watches the flash on the horizon, 
but it is not lightening he sees.
The high anvil of cumulus has been struck:
the rain begins to fall into the cracks
in the ground.

Might they go home now?

© 2010 Andy Gay