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Saturday 23 March 2019

Sacrament


Sacrament

In the awesome name of God,
in the victorious name of Jesus
in the mysterious name of the Spirit

By words we acknowledge our God
By prayer we summon our God
And we wait, we are still
And we wait, we are silent
And we wait, wait for the sounds of God
And the sounds of the sacrament
The breaking of bread and the gushing of wine

The pain of sorrow, and the pulse of hope
And the echo of our name
And the bread in our teeth, a cup on our lips
Other bodies breathing beside us
A voice in our face “The body of your Lord”
A power in our ears “The blood of your Lord”
And we wait for the sounds of God
The sounds of the sacrament
The breaking of bread and the gushing of wine

We hear strange sounds in the distance
The misery of other human lives
The scramble for rice, and the searching through the garbage
The shuffle of withered limbs, the breaking of brittle bones
The shiver of a pregnant mother, the scream of a motherless child
The trickle of goat’s milk, the sigh of the dispossessed
The mumble of fear, the murmur of distrust
The grumble of empty stomachs, the splash of spent blood
The sounds of a scramble for life
Amid the breaking of bread, and the gushing of wine

We hear the snarl of a bullet, the snap of a trigger
The thump of lead tearing into flesh, the grinding bite of steel into bone
The sudden crump of unseen mines, the constant moan of riddled skies
The hiss and crackle of angry flames, and the staccato cough of smoking ruins
The whisper of desolation, the sounds of civil war
Despite the breaking of bread, and the gushing of wine

We hear the bleating of a lamb, and the splitting of a womb
The death of a lamb, and the breaking of a tomb
The beginning of an end, and a word that carries healing
The taste of a mystery, and a God who has feeling
In the breaking of bread, and the gushing of wine

Yet we still listen for the bursting of joy
And watch for the bubbling smile of release
The happy laughter of children’s voices
The dancing among willows, and the surprise of freedom
The shout of the mountains, and the scream of a new birth
The leap of our spirit, and the whirl of celebration
We still listen to God
The sounds of the celebration of God
And the breaking of bread, and the gushing of wine

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2019

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