Poems written by Rodney Ward, minister at Berwick, based on the Gospel readings in Year B - February to Holy Week 2006
Second series - Easter Day onwards
Mark 1.29-39
When Jesus called in that day
I was sick with a fever,
the flat roof bearing down,
heat swirling in at the window,
my bed too narrow and hard
to contain my tossing and turning.
Simon and Andrew, James and John
peering into my room
added their breath to the heat
the smell of fish clinging to their clothes.
My eyes saw things that weren’t there
and my mouth formed words with no meaning.
Time passed.
Coming in at the door
I was aware of the coolness of his presence.
I felt strength return as he held my hand
lifting me from my bed.
It was great to feel normal again
as I set about serving Sabbath lunch.
He smiled
and I realised later
service was the example he set.
My days are less fevered
in the calmness of his presence.
Mark 1.40-45
Used to rejection -
the harsh word
and the fearful eye -
I knelt before Jesus
in despairing hope.
“Make me clean -
if you choose,”
the words hanging between us
in the still air.
Amazed, I felt his touch,
his voice heavy
with warm indignation
and the pity of love.
“I do choose” -
an incandescent moment
between being a leper
and being healed.
What a choice
that was for me today.
Yes, I heard him -
“Don’t say anything”
but good news
has to be shared.
Mark 2.2-12
We’d heard Jesus was at home
but so had the others
and they were all there.
Unable to get in
my friends looked at me
and glanced at the roof.
“Are you up for it?”
What was there to lose
stuck on a mat
these last years?
Nodding assent
they got me up on the roof
which was one thing,
but coming down through the hole
along with straw and pigeon droppings
was something else.
I’ll say this for Jesus,
he wasn’t fazed.
“Son, your sins are forgiven.”
I’d come for healing
but this felt even better.Well that started it -
Raised eyebrows,
Why? and Who? written on their faces.
Jesus stayed steady.
He’d done the forgiveness bit.
Now it was
“Stand up!
Take your mat!
Go home!”
And I did.
As everybody said,
“Wow!”
Mark 9.2-9
Coming down from the mountain that day
everything was different.
We had set out jauntily before dawn
avoiding the heat.
On top
we were quiet from the exertion
my mind far away.
Something happened in that moment,
a seeing into the inwardness of things,
Jesus appearing in a new light,
shining from within,
connecting him to Moses and Elijah.
We were almost blinded with the radiance
and Peter as always stuck his neck out
wanting the place a permanent shrine.
But we had to come down
some of the things Jesus said
baffling us.
Looking ahead
we could see a crowd gathered
not knowing what it portended.
Mark 1.9-14
Outside
there was only the heat
and the cold night,
the ground like cinders,
the wild dogs howling,
the hillside etched with rocks.
But inside
there was the Voice
dark
insistent
attractive
in its worldly wiseness,
urging me
to think before setting out,
to devise a strategy,
to weigh the cost.
In the end,
though it took forty days and nights
it subsided before another voice
whispering within
“My Son, my beloved”.
Mark 8 31-38
It was a day to remember
starting out well
as we talked
somewhere up north
near Caesarea Philippi.
The others hedged their bets
when he asked,
“Who am I?”
You know the kind of thing -
John - Elijah -
not quite believing
what they were saying.
But I said
“You are the Messiah”
straight out like
and proud of it too.
I should have stopped there
but something he said
got me going.
“The Messiah must be killed.”
What?
Blood rushing to my face,
I came on strong.
“How dare you say such a thing.”
I'll never forget
his words -
“Get behind me, Satan!”
Harsh
but what I needed
to turn my mind
to divine things.
John 2.13-22
We were at our stalls
that Passover
when he stormed in
on the usual scene -
cows mooing,
sheep baaing,
doves cooing,
money changers chattering.
I'd seen him there before,
looking around,
taking it all in.
But this time the dam burst.
Perhaps it was
the chink of money
that upset him.
Flames leapt from his eyes,
the cords of his whip
stinging as they caught my hand.
His words seared -
“Get out!
This is God's house!”
I fled.
Afterwards I heard
he'd talked of the temple
raised from destruction
in three days.
Really?
John 3.14-21
Listening to Jesus
that night
there was a lot take in,
his voice deep and low,
the light from the fire
glinting in his hair.
I clung to his words -
“As Moses lifted up the serpent” -
and that I knew.
But what followed?
“So must the Son of Man be lifted up”.
Staring into the fire,
words stood out
as he spoke -
“eternal life”
“love”
“salvation”
“belief”
“judgement” -
and my mind raced
to keep up.
Was he talking about himself
that night
sure
in himself
as the agent of salvation?
John 12.20-33
I remember the day very well,
some Greeks
asking to see Jesus,
having heard his name
among the Passover crowds.
“What is it Philip?”
Andrew asked
when I’d found him
and in turn we found Jesus.Strangely enough
he didn’t reply
but spoke about dying
and eternal life,
troubled by this talk of death
but seeing it as glory.
Was it thunder
or an angel
that seemed to confirm
what he’d said?
“And I,
when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to myself.”
Looking back,
I suppose the Greeks
were a foretaste of this “all”.
Mark 11.1-11
Carrying Jesus that day
I wondered who he was.
The crowds
busy with their palms
and psalms
were intent on Jerusalem,
the feast beckoning.
His disciples,
excited
by the prospect of the coming Kingdom
and their own place in it
cried out “Hosanna”.
Who was he?
None of them
really knew.
But I sensed that he knew
as I carried him
humbly,
purposefully,
that day
on the road to Jerusalem.