example

I wrote this yesterday as an example of a group poem. It's a writing exercise I stole from the magnificent Adrian Plass - each member of the group finishes a sentence such as "our God is..." or "the righteous are" and the results are read out together. I've done this in a few sizes of groups, and it's magnificent every time to see the variety of emotional expression in our individual relationships with God. It's also quite thrilling for people who'd never attempt poetry to see what is possible, and, I think, brings a new depth of appreciation. 

I'll be sharing this exercise in my bible study group next week - maybe you could try it in a group you're in? It doesn't have to be on a 'religious' theme!

Our God is...

Our God is a breath of pure oxygen after a day of smog.

Our God is awesome, mighty and powerful. 

Our God is the reason I get up in the morning. 

Our God is a far off Father who always seems angry.

Our world is a desperate place, full of striving and wasted energy.

Our world is startling in its beauty, terrifying in its terrors.
Our world is full of people who need God.

Our world is a place that makes me tired.

The wicked are many, and seem to get away with everything.
The wicked are probably misunderstood. 

The wicked are as in need of grace as I am.
The wicked are people that think only of themselves.

The righteous are ridiculously lucky, they don't deserve what they're getting.

The righteous are failures saved by grace.
The righteous are really annoying sometimes, because they think they know it all. 

The righteous are people transformed by God.

Our Father

Our Father who art in heaven...

(Who art? Or which art? Who knows! It's kinda sad though, none of us really use the word 'art' in that way any more... Maybe if I can ever have children and I have a son, I'll name him Arthur so he can be Art for short.) 

Hallowed be thy name... 

(I know, I know, cue a million terrible and imprecise explanations of how 'hallowed' means holy and set apart, blah blah blah. It's just funny that in my mind it always winds up as hello-ed be your name, which I think is equally nice in a strange sort of way.)

Thy kingdom come... 

(Yes, some theologians basically think JC came to usher in a socialist paradise for all, but in general, I feel kinda lost in this phrase... Kingdom for me invokes all those big, abstract, remote concepts of governance and jurisdiction, and a strange old person I've never met talking to me from the telly at Christmas... I know I'd prefer your political rule to any other I'm ever going to experience, and all those other lofty thoughts are probably good, but the sense of the remote is interesting...)

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...

(Again, juggling difficult concepts here, of a separation between the physical earth I experience every day and 'heaven' as, what, another physical space? Or another way of referring to your kingly rule? A physical space that has not yet come into being? Or a strange, parallel dimension Sheldon Cooper would be fascinated to investigate?! And beside the concept juggling is the stressful walk along the tightrope between joyful, free obedience of your will and fatalistic automatism (is that even a word??!). Your planning-type will? Your moral will? All of the above?)

Give us this day our daily bread...

(Easy for me to spiritualise when I'm not starving... 'Nuff said.)

Forgive us our sins... 

(Oh, I am so happy to plead for this right now! Not even grasping the depth of my personal offences, you've restored enough of my senses to perceive the blackness there in the glimpses you give me...)

As we forgive those who sin against us...

(I just really have to hope that 'as we' doesn't mean 'in the same way' or, 'to the same extent', cos if it does, I'm screwed.)

Lead us not into temptation...

(Because I'm recklessly hopeless, and can't resist the bad very strongly. In fact, between the devil's schemes and my weakness, it's a wrestle to ignore the final TimTam let alone obey your good, pleasing and perfect will all the time!)

But deliver us from evil... 

(On every level please, global, social, physical and personal.)

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, both now and forever...

(Again with the weird remote other-ness... The reaching out into eternal spaces that I'm to small and distracted to fathom... Forever and ever. Forever and ever...

The breadth and depth of what I've just said are beyond me, and I've said this so often I've forgotten... 

And, to cap it all off, I can only pray this to you because of our brother who art in heaven, and that's only because in speaking of Him I'm not praying for the dead, cos He's alive...!

Holy crap!)

Amen.