Skip to main content

The Mirror

I'm still on sabbatical and one of my sabbatical projects is collating and reworking some of my earlier writings into a form fit to publish. One of my sabbatical challenges is trying to find places to worship on a Sunday that will not haul me unceremoniously back into work mode. Project and challenge came together this morning as I tried to slip unnoticed into Fitzroy Presbyterian (I failed in being unnoticed) and in listening to my friend Steve Stockman preach on the importance of Being With Each Other my mind went to the following piece. It originated as part of the last event I worked on with New  Irish Arts (whose chamber choir were on the Proms in the Park" event at the Titanic slipways), entitled “Genesis: A Celebration of Creativity” marking their 10th Anniversary, but I have posted it here a couple of times in a slightly different form.

Have you ever looked at yourself 
in the mirror of a morning
And wondered
“What does anyone see in me?”

The Creator looked at himself 
in a mirror one morning, a 
mirror which he had made,
A mirror fashioned out of clay
Transformed into flesh, blood and bone.
And in the mirror of man’s eye
God saw himself…

But it was not good, for
He was alone
And God was never alone. He 
was always “us.”

So God made another to 
make the picture complete.

And that morning he saw himself 
in the mirror of humanity
Male and female
Loved and loving
Created to create
Together.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-