How can I blaspheme? (poem)

I look upon your cross
a body broken
deserted by friends
forsaken by God
scorned by all.
How can I blaspheme?

Upon the cross I see
the lips that accepted the kiss of a traitor
hands that reached out to give curing touch to a leper
feet prepared for death by the tears and hair of a prostitute
I join the oppressor and say "Surely this is the Son of God."
How can I blaspheme?

Yet I surely blaspheme
when I turn your passionate love into platitudes
your new way into a continuation of our desires
your gift of grace into a free pass
a relationship with a living God into self-analysis.

Shake me.
Mould me.
Stir me.
For I must proclaim.
Lord, grant me the courage not to blaspheme.

Another Poem

Can I Pray for a Stranger

Can I pray for a stranger?
Across the carriage
with no sobs
pain appearing only in her eyes
slowly it escapes
to be dabbed away with a tissue.

Can I pray for a stranger?
So young and yet so hurt
so I pray
and poetry leaks into my mind.

Can I pray for a stranger?
no words
minimal looks
there's nothing I can do for her.

So I pray for a stranger
the train slows down for a stop
a young man walks in
enfolding her in his arms.

I should pray for the stranger
with problems not for me to solve
a reminder I am not the world's saviour
the puppet recognising the puppeteer.

Retreat Poem 2 (of 2)

Followers of a Party-Trick God (based on John 11)

This happened so the glory of God may be revealed.
Lazarus broken,
his family distraught.
A hope deferred to the future met that day.

This happened so the glory of God may be revealed.
How obscene is that?
Children backed over by cars,
lives wrecked by disease,
families broken,
townships swamped.
The towers of our predictable, scientific world come tumbling down.

This happened so the glory of God may be revealed.
Your church scandalously divided,
squabbling to own those who can only be Yours,
excising themselves from Your world.

This happened so the glory of God may be revealed.
A world mistaking knowledge for understanding,
reducing wonder to statistics,
humanity to commercial value,
and beauty to symmetry.

Lord, do wondrous things through us,
the church cries out each day.
Fill us with your power and your glory,
so that we may point to you.

Lord, do wondrous things through us.
Pour us out for the hurt and unloved.
Expose us in our fragile humanity.
Lead us to die for those who hate us.

No, Lord, can't you just let us be?
Allow us to devise wise techniques and programs,
granting deliverance safely through statistics and strategy.
Mine be the glory.

Your faithfulness will not let us go.
Your love draws us in,
there's nothing left for us.
So, let us walk to Jerusalem with you.

Lord, replace our pride with your compassion,
substitute our control with your love.
Shake, shatter and rebuild us in your image once more,
so that your glory may truly be known through us.