Mystery Without Rhyme or Reason

Poetic Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary

Coffey, Griffith

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781498220910
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This collection of poetic reflections is a rich resource for a faithful imagination. Michael Coffey's poems explore the deep questions and joyful affirmations of Christian faith. Never settling for easy answers or straight-forward interpretations, Coffey's writing invites the reader into new spiritual territory where the strange and unexpected, the beautiful and painful, become an encounter with the holy.Anyone preparing to preach or teach on biblical texts will find here words that inspire, challenge, and create new inroads for faith. Anyone seeking meditative or devotional readings of Scripture will find a companion for thoughtful reflection and prayer. Covering most of the Sundays and primary festivals of the church's liturgical year, these writings will enrich all who plan, prepare, and participate in worship that spans the vast themes of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and the ordinary Sundays.

Lectionary Year C

You Said Meet You by the Fig Tree

Advent 1 C

Luke 21:25–36

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. (Luke 21:29–31)

You said meet you by the fig tree

and the leaves would heal us

and the branches flower and fruit and feed

you said God would appear as sure as spring

and something wonderful that has no human words,

maybe only exhalations, was coming, and soon, and how

we waited by the tree, observed fruit emerging,

heard it plunk to the ground, smelled sweet softened flesh

watched chipmunks and marmosets scurry off with it all

now the leaves brown and pirouette to the ground

and the branches look like weapons and the wind blows

through us and we are naked in our waiting in our weakened faith

you admonish, “Be on guard, let not your hearts be weighed down

with dissipation and drunkenness and worry,” but

gravity pulls and tugs and we do droop and drink and dissolve

O Lord, yes you—the one who said to meet you there

the one who withered on the tree like wasted produce

who rose too soon because where are you now—our longing for you aches

so why do we gather still and so, watching twigs sprout and bud

spying every last ficus carica, eavesdropping to hear if you will curse it

or finally flower all hopes and dreams now shriveled on the branch

The Messenger

Advent 2 C

Malachi 3:1–4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the LORD whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. (Mal 3:1–3)

comes in midnight dreams to tell us that the mountain of ore—

five tons of debris from the soul’s strip mine

dug up from psychotherapy and silent desert sitting

exposing veins of pain and subterranean t...

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Introduction
• Lectionary Year A
• Lectionary Year B
• Lectionary Year C