Lit Faithfulness

It’s simpler
Than you think

No mountains
To climb

No epiphanies
To have

No words
To preach

Just buy a box of
Matches

It does not matter
Who you meet

Or what they
Believe

Each has a candle of
Cherished dreams

Invite everyone
Out of the rain

Out of the wind
Out of the sun

Just enough shelter
To pause

Most will not
Stop

They’ll just
Brush you by

Too busy
Too harried

Too ambitious
Too broken

If they give you
The time of day

Ask “Where’s
Your candle?”

Your ask will restore
Candles

Eaten by rats
Long hidden

Denied
Forgotten

Ask who
Rains on them

Blows out their light
Glares too bright

Then give them
The box of matches

Let them
Strike the light

If needed
Cup your hands

Protect the wick
As they

Light the candle
Of their dreams

Let the flickering
Grow to flame

Now listen to them in
Their sacred space

Hear the tales of their
Cherished dreams

Ask
“Is it lit?”

At “yes”
You leave behind

Matches
Not thinking

The Candle Trilogy: Unlit Betrayal | Lit Faithfulness | Faithful Betrayal – Holy Fire

Theme for the Year

(c) Jamie Coats         February 2016

In 2017 Episcopal Relief and Development asked to use this poem as a reflection for Palm Sunday.

I wrote this meditation:

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rides into Jerusalem in triumph – on a donkey. He arrives not as the force-wielding conquering hero, but as the man who listens to dreams of every person and says, “you are already loved by God.” The social hierarchy that makes some high and superior and the rest low and inferior is ended. After his arrest we the crowd cry, “Crucify Him!” How dare a man upset our social order by listening to the cherished dreams of every person regardless of rank or status? We may be angry but Jesus asks us to light a candle of prayer. That candle is in all our hearts, including the least and poorest of us.