Easter 5B

A poetic reflection on 1 John 4:7-21 and John 15:1-8 by The Rev. Crystal Karr...she says that it based on a true story.

Untitled

Once a man called his pastor
angry and confused.
There were some folks in the church
who needed to be straightened out.
It seems that they had did him wrong
and when the pastor asked about grace,
the poor angry man
screamed, hollered, & ranted.
“Grace, grace was the problem!
Too much talk about grace and love
that’s what’s wrong with the church today!”

The pastor sat in awe and shock,
not sure what to do or say next.
She reached out her hand to touch his
and said, “I’ll pray for you, for grace and love is what this church is all about.”
She thought about the young girl
who’d gotten pregnant at 16
and the family who took her in—
the grace they had given
was returned with more love
than they had ever imagined.
The grandson they could never have,
was now in their arms.
The young mother and now, toddler, son
share a new family,
one without violence that shatters one’s sleep.
Grace and love, that’s what this church is all about.

Grace and love, is what we’re about.
The girl’s father both angered and sad,
her mother still frightened and mad
began to speak their pain, their sorrow
in this place, in this church.
The girl’s heart began to break once more.
But her broken heart filled with grace,
the grace she had received spread to
those parents who’d thrown her out,
sent her to the street with new life
sprouting in her belly.
The parents’ who kept her awake with screams,
breaking glass, and bright lights in her window,
received her love, her grace and began to feel something new.
Something they had missed all these years.
Grace and love is what this church is all about.

“I’ll pray for you my friend, because grace and love is what The Church is all about.”

Some say we’ve gone soft, we’ve become lost
but love and grace take courage, take strength.
It turns your world upside down.
There are those who have died for it.
The One we worship
died to show us, to give us love and grace.
Grace and love is what this church is all about.