Each week we carefully curate a collection of poems that resonate with the lectionary readings for that week (Narrative Lectionary and Revised Common Lectionary).
*** Revised Common Lectionary ***
Lectionary Reading:
John 10:11-18
CLASSIC POEM:
The Pathways of the Holy Land
Elizabeth Charles
The pathways of Thy land are little changed
Since Thou wert there;
The busy world through other ways has ranged,
And left these bare.
The rooky path still climbs the glowing steep
Of Olivet;
Though rains of two millenniums wear it deep,
Men tread it yet.
Still to the gardens o’er the brook it leads,
Quiet and low;
Before his sheep the shepherd on it treads,
His voice they know
The wild fig throws broad shadows o’er it still,
As once o’er Thee;
Peasants go home at evening up that hill
To Bethany.
And as when gazing Thou didst weep o’er them,
From height to height
The white roofs of discrowned Jerusalem
Burst on our sight.
These ways were strewed with garments once and palm,
Which we tread thus;
Here through Thy triumph on Thou passedst, calm,
To death;—for us!
The waves have washed fresh sands upon the shore
Of Galilee;
But chiselled in the hill-sides evermore
Thy paths we see.
Man has not changed them in that slumbering land,
Nor Time effaced:
Where Thou hast stood to heal, we still may stand;
All can be traced.
Yet we have traces of Thy footsteps far
Truer than these;—
Where’er the poor, and tried, and suffering are,
Thy steps faith sees.
Nor with fond sad regrets Thy steps we trace;
Thou art not dead!
Our path is onward, till we see Thy face,
And hear Thy tread.
And now, wherever meets Thy lowliest band
In praise and prayer,
There is Thy presence, there Thy Holy Land,—
Thou, Thou art there!
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
The Good Shepherd
Stanley Moss
SNIPPET:
Because he would not abandon the flock for a lost sheep
after the others had bedded down for the night,
he turned back, searched the thickets and gullies.
Sleepless, while the flock dozed in the morning mist
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]
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C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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