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:
2 Samuel 11:26- 12:13a
CLASSIC POEM:
The Story of Uriah
Rudyard Kipling
“Now there were two men in one city;
the one rich, and the other poor.”
Jack Barrett went to Quetta
Because they told him to.
He left his wife at Simla
On three-fourths his monthly screw.
Jack Barrett died at Quetta
Ere the next month’s pay he drew.
Jack Barrett went to Quetta.
He didn’t understand
The reason of his transfer
From the pleasant mountain-land.
The season was September,
And it killed him out of hand.
Jack Barrett went to Quetta
And there gave up the ghost,
Attempting two men’s duty
In that very healthy post;
And Mrs. Barrett mourned for him
Five lively months at most.
Jack Barrett’s bones at Quetta
Enjoy profound repose;
But I shouldn’t be astonished
If now his spirit knows
The reason of his transfer
From the Himalayan snows.
And, when the Last Great Bugle Call
Adown the Hurnai throbs,
And the last grim joke is entered
In the big black Book of Jobs.
And Quetta graveyards give again
Their victims to the air,
I shouldn’t like to be the man
Who sent Jack Barrett there.
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
King David
Stephen Vincent Benet
SNIPPET:
4
The messenger came while King David played
The friskiest ditty ever made.
” News, O King, from our dubious war!
The Lord of Hosts hath prevailed once more!
” His foes are scattered like chirping sparrows,
Their kings lie breathless, feathered with arrows.
” Many are dead of your captains tall.
Uriah the Hittite was first to fall. “
David turned from the frolicsome strings
And rent his clothes for the death of kings.
Yet, as he rent them, he smiled for joy.
The sly, wide smile of a wicked boy.
” The powerful grace of the Lord prevails!
He has cracked Uriah between His nails!
” His blessings are mighty, they shall not cease.
And my days henceforth shall be days of peace! “
His mind grew tranquil, smoother than fleece.
He rubbed his body with scented grease.
And his days thenceforward were days of peace.
His days were fair as the flowering lime
— For a little time, for a little time.
And Bathsheba lay in his breast like a dove,
A vessel of amber, made for love.
5
When Bathsheba was great with child,
(The Lord God is a jealous God!)
Portly and meek as a moon grown mild,
(The Lord is King above all gods!)
Nathan, the prophet, wry and dying,
Preached to the king like a locust crying:
” Hearken awhile to a doleful thing!
There were two men in thy land, O King!
” One was rich as a gilded ram.
One had one treasure, a poor ewe-lamb.
” Rich man wasted his wealth like spittle.
Poor man shared with his lamb spare victual.
” A traveler came to the rich man’s door.
” Give me to eat, for I hunger sore!”
” Rich man feasted him fatly, true,
But the meat that he gave him was fiend’s meat, too,
Stolen and roasted, the poor man’s ewe!
” Hearken, my lord, to a deadly thing!
What shall be done with these men, O King? “
David hearkened, seeing it plain,
His heart grew heavy with angry pain:
” Show me the rich man that he be slain! “
Nathan barked as a jackal can.
” Just, O King! And thou art the man! “
David rose as the thunders rise
When someone in Heaven is telling lies.
But his eyes were weaker than Nathan’s eyes.
His huge bulk shivered like quaking sod,
Shoulders bowing to Nathan’s rod,
Nathan, the bitter apple of God.
His great voice shook like a runner’s, spent,
” My sin has found me! Oh, I repent! “
Answered Nathan, that talkative Jew:
” For many great services, comely and true,
The Lord of Mercy will pardon you.
” But the child in Bathsheba, come of your seed,
Shall sicken and die like a blasted weed. “
David groaned when he heard him speak.
The painful tears ran hot on his cheek.
Ashes he cast on his kingly locks.
All night long he lay on the rocks.
Beseeching his Lord with a howling cry:
” O Lord God, O my jealous God,
Be kind to the child that it may not die,
For Thou art King above all gods! “
…
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