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:
Luke 17:11-19
The Ten Lepers
John Keble
‘And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.’—LUKE XVII. 17, 18.
TEN cleans’d, and only one remain!
Who would have thought our nature’s stain
Was dyed so foul, so deep in grain?
Even He who reads the heart,—
Knows what He gave and what we lost,
Sin’s forfeit, and redemption’s cost,—
By a short pang of wonder cross’d
Seems at the sight to start:
Yet ’twas not wonder, but His love
Our wavering spirits would reprove,
That heaven-ward seem so free to move
When earth can yield no more:
Then from afar on God we cry;
But should the mist of woe roll by,
Not showers across an April sky
Drift when the storm is o’er,
Faster than those false drops and few
Fleet from the heart, a worthless dew.
What sadder scene can Angels view
Than self-deceiving tears,
Pour’d idly over some dark page
Of earlier life, through pride or rage
The record of to-day engage,
A woe for future years?
Spirits, that round the sick man’s bed
Watch’d, noting down each prayer he made,
Were your unerring roll display’d,
His pride of health to abase;
Or, when soft showers in season fall
Answering a famish’d nation’s call,
Should unseen fingers on the wall
Our vows forgotten trace;
How should we gaze in trance of fear!
Yet shines the light as thrilling clear
From heaven upon that scroll severe,
“Ten cleans’d and one remain!”
Nor surer would the blessing prove
Of humbled hearts that own Thy love,
Should choral welcome from above
Visit our senses plain:
Than by Thy placid voice and brow,
With healing first, with comfort now,
Turn’d upon him, who hastes to bow
Before Thee, heart and knee;
“O! thou, who only would’st be blest, 45
On thee alone My blessing rest!
Rise, go thy way in peace, possess’d
For evermore of Me.”
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
The Ten Lepers
Sofia Kioroglou
SNIPPET:
Being a leper all my life
I searched for some truth
…
[ 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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