CHRISTMAS

 

                                                      This is a time to ask nothing,

Not for ourselves, nor for others,

Not a time to think that it would behoove

Our Lord to give, fix, save, or soothe.

 

It is a quiet time to sing praises,

A joyful time to give thanks,

A time to count our blessings not our woes,

For us to give to others and forgive our foes.

 

A moment to inhale deeply,

Contemplating the greatest gift bestowed,

Exhaling songs of celebration

For the Child of the incarnation.

 

A blazing star cut through the night,

Touching heaven to earth upon the site.

A connection made by celestial light.

  Shepherds walked, kings rode, angels took flight.

 

They gathered then, as we do still,

To stop, reflect, and wonder fill,

Hearts beating, eyes stinging with the thrill,

For the Child of God’s love, word, and will.

 

He came to teach, heal, and sacrifice,

The prophecies He did fulfill,

From His birth in rustic stable’s chill,

To His final struggle up on the hill.

 

May we delight in knowing the gift

Our Father in heaven devised for us.

This Child so tender, this Child so brave,

Our savage souls, He came to save.

 

First of a Trilogy by JK 1999

 

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         Lenten Litany

 

Dust to dust, ash to ash,

when do we realize,

this life won’t last?

 

Our time is great.

Our time is short.

Like elastic stretched,

then snapping back,

our lives seem long,

till time is gone.

 

We must not delay,

but gather our wits

and make our way.

 

This season comes

to stop and review,

self evaluate,

improve our plan.

The time of Lent

should be well spent.

 

Forty days, forty nights,

Jesus fraught with fasting,

set his sights.

 

He knew the cost.

He blazed the trail.

He honed his sense

of right and wrong,

fought temptation

with indignation.

 

We too must reflect,

clear the obstacles

of our own neglect.

 

Our time is great.

Our time is short.

We must make it count.

Bring out our best

by introspection

and flaw correction.

 

Ash to ash, dust to dust,

amend ourselves

we must, we must.

 

JK October 22, 2002

 

 

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Maundy Thursday

 

Jesus knew exactly when

His time would come

to leave this world,

abandon all He’d done.

 

He’d had some idea

for quite a ghastly while

that His time to teach                   

would end in gruesome trial.

 

An ordeal of terrible pain

surrounded by profanity

by men so vicious and vain,

they shame all humanity.

 

He had tried to teach love,

kindness, and compassion,

yet this obedience to God

would birth His bitter Passion.

 

To Him it must have seemed

unfinished and too soon,

with disciples not prepared

to perceive His pending doom.

 

If only He could have more time

to be sure His word would take

and spread throughout the world,

His life and struggles, no mistake.

 

To this end He did plea

upon bent and frightened knee

that dark and lonely night

in the garden of Gethsemane.

 

Even with all He had foretold

and all He seemed to know,

He felt not really ready

when His time had come to go.

 

Only God knew His work

was complete enough,

His efforts would ignite

in spite of parting rough.

 

If Jesus had misgivings

with all He did foresee

as to whether His life’s work

would be all it should be…

 

What of us and our attempts,

our time we have spent here?

We who have not a clue

as to when the end is near.

 

Jesus warns of death coming

like a thief, stealth in the night.

Will we be standing ready,

our goals attained their height?

 

Have we witnessed His great love

for all the world to see?

Did we use the gifts God gave us

to fulfill our destiny?

 

Have we worked in the right vein,

not missed on opportunity

to show God’s love to others,

fostering peace and unity?

 

And finally we ask, just as He,

will our labors ever bloom,

some good we did remembered,

not lost within our tomb?

 

Even He had no conception

of what it was He’d started,

and it seems neither will we

until once we have departed.

 

After His final pleading

that sad and somber night,

He said, “Let God’s will be done,”

and gave in calmly to His plight.

 

So too, we must have faith

that in the coming of the thief

nothing will be stolen,

though we think our time too brief.

 

For if God is in our hearts,

He will find our life complete.

Whether we comprehend or not,

our legacy will be replete.   

 

 

                              JK    April 13, 2001

 

 

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Easter

 

He came as part of God’s great plan,

His only son to be born of man

To spread God’s word throughout the land.

 

He tirelessly trod the dusty roads,

Casting His nets of woven truths

Across the sea of humanity.

 

He had no place to rest His head.

He healed and raised us from the dead.

Thousands He taught, thousands He fed.

 

Kings hailed Him, heralded Him, hated Him.

Women washed His feet with tender tears.

Some priests secretly believed, others felt deceived.

 

They bore Him gifts of gold and myrrh,

Yet He suffered both praise as well as slur.

Only He knew the path He would endure.

 

They laid down palms and called Him king.

They whipped and mocked Him with crown of thorn.

When no guilt was found, they passed Him around.

 

The Romans didn’t want Him tried,

Yet the Jews wanted Him crucified.

The mob had turned, they felt He’d lied.

 

He bore the cross of our sinful nature,

And still forgave us in His final hour,

Then He gave up His ghost to the heavenly host.

 

The sun went dark and the women wept.

Into His tomb they later crept…

Only to be asked why they had come,

For God had reclaimed His only Son.

 

JK 1999 Second of the Trilogy

 

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                    PENTECOST

 

The disciples were called for a rendezvous.

They convened together at the coming of night.

What anxiety they must have felt,

A room filled with confusion and dire fright.

 

Some claimed to have seen Him.

Others wrestled with wavering doubt.

No matter had He perished or prevailed,

Their lives were turning inside out.

 

He had said He would leave,

But how could He dare?

And in such a sad manner,

What a horrid affair!

 

They felt as powerless as

He had seemed upon the cross.

What could they do now,

After such a great loss?

 

For years He had meant so much to them,

Their mentor and inspiration,

Their humble servant and friend,

A miracle-working sensation.

 

He could walk on waters,

Still the winds, calm the tides.

When human weakness besieged them,

He was at their sides.

 

Now they were alone,

So alone in the darkening room.

Would He really come to visit,

From his empty tomb?

 

Suddenly the coverlet of gloom,

Woven of doubt and despair,

Was set ablaze with chrism

Of light and flaming flare!

 

He had returned!

From death afar,

With glowing robe

And searing scar.

 

To His untimely end,

His flesh bore witness,

Yet still He was whole,

With a heavenly fitness.

 

He held out His pierced hands,

For them to see, touch and feel.

He said all had come to pass,

His resurrection was real.

 

He had come to send them off,

To all directions of the wind.

They were to preach the world His word,

Giving life to all who'd sinned.

 

The tongues of fire of Holy Ghost

Were to be His final gift.

The tremendous task before them

Would need such a holy lift.

 

The spiritual sparks did energize,

All festering fears did erase.

In the void boldness grew,

Filling them with heaven’s Grace.

 

Their hearts were bolstered,

Their minds did conceive,

There was a Holy Trinity

In which to believe!

 

 JK Last of the trilogy 1999 

 

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 Ash Wednesday

 

From dust we came, to dust we go,

ashes to ashes, our flesh.

 

Our time here is transitory,

and must be spent for the best.

 

Our musings shall not be squandered

on mundane and vulgar quest.

 

Life’s not about indulgences,

pretense, or how we are dressed.

 

But rather, how well we listen,

to the heart within our chest.

 

Is it with great love and kind deeds,

that we want to be obsessed?

 

Do we prevail through the hard times,

when we are put to the test?

 

Will we choose to follow God’s Word,

with a zealot’s zeal and zest?

 

This is the day to start to ask,

will I help those in distress,

 

and before returning to ash,

seek God through love, not duress?

 

 

JK Feb. 9, 2008

 

 

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 Good Friday

 

 

THE CROSS----

 

Epitomizes man’s degradation and God’s righteousness.

         Nothing symbolizes the gap between man and God

                 more clearly than the Cross. 

 

Man at his meanest, cruelest,

         the pettiness, jealousy, and manipulating of the priests,

                  the fickleness and blood thirst of the people.

 

While Jesus suffers in silence then utters,

        “God forgive them for they know not what they do,”

                  encapsulating the Lord’s incomparable love and absolution,

                          in spite of our horrific nature. 

 

Jesus, His bodily self the bridge across this daunting divide,

        stretched out upon the Cross

                connecting man gambling and mumbling profanity at His feet,

                        with God eclipsing the sun and opening

                               redemptive heavens above His head.

 

 

                              JK August 2007

 

 

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                                                    Easter Essence

 

For those who believe in the Easter Event

Peace and tranquility are heaven sent.

 

As the wonder of spring flowers softly unfold,

The miracle of Easter is devoutly retold.

 

All of us who are Christian-hearted,

Feel the pain and promise of Jesus departed.

 

Let us each renew our own love of God,

Whose Son has raised us from sin and sod.

 

In joy may we revel, in trial may we cope,

Yet never lose sight of the Easter Hope.

 

 

 JK 1992