Yesterday I “led” a gathering of some colleagues who gather regularly for sharing, prayer and encouragement. We spent some time meditating on and discussing John 1:1-18, eventually considering how “the Word” and “words” are important in life and ministry. I then invited the group to peruse a listing of one-line quotes from various poems, to pick one of the lines, and then to create a poem of their own based around that line.
My time of preparation for leadership was a great way to reconnect with my love of poetry. As Kathleen Norris says, “poets speak with no authority but that which the reader is willing to grant them. Our task is not to convince but to suggest, evoke, explore.” This is, to me, an apt description of preaching as well. In fact, Fred Craddock wrote a book on preaching entitled “As One Without Authority.” I would love to be more poetic and less prosaic in my preaching; to be more evocative and less prescriptive. Certainly the younger generation in our time is looking for art rather than explanation.
As a result of my preparation, I now have a new “favorite” poem (at least until the next one comes along). It is by Mary Oliver:
The Place I Want To Get Back To
is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness
and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me
they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let’s see who she is
and why she is sitting
on the ground like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;
and so they came
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way
I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward
and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring to me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years
I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can’t be repeated.
If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.
