Poets & Saints

Scripture   Psalm 23:5 (NRSV)    You prepare a table before me   in the presence of my enemies;   You anoint my head with oil;   my cup overflows. Refrain   Even here, I am welcome at the table. Quote Henri Nouwen , from Life of the Beloved   “The world says, ‘Prove that you are worth something—fight, climb, earn.’   B...

Scripture   Nehemiah 8:10 (NRSV)    Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine   and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared,   for this day is holy to our Lord;   and do not be grieved,   for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Refrain   Joy is not naive—it’s courageous. Poem&nbs...

Scripture   Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NRSV)    He has made everything suitable for its time;   moreover, He has put a sense of eternity into their minds,   yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Refrain   Beauty blesses me when I slow down to see. Quote Makoto Fujimura , from Art + Faith “Beauty is not a luxury. &nb...

Scripture   Psalm 30:5 (NRSV)    For His anger is but for a moment;   His favor is for a lifetime.   Weeping may linger for the night,   but joy comes with the morning. Refrain   Even here, joy is still possible. Poem   Frederick Buechner , from Secrets in the Dark “Joy is home.   And I think the reason we sometimes ha...

Scripture   Genesis 32:24–30 (NRSV, abridged)    Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.   When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob,   he struck him on the hip socket;   and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.   Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.”   Bu...

Scripture   Luke 4:1–2, 13 (NRSV)    Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan   and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,   where for forty days He was tempted by the devil.   He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, He was famished...   When the devil had finished every test,   he dep...

Scripture   Psalm 18:28 (NRSV)    It is You who light my lamp;   the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. Refrain   Even here, Your light finds me. Poem   Christian Wiman , from My Bright Abyss “God goes, belonging to every riven thing He’s made   singing without sound,   a light so terrible it will erase the darkness you have k...

Scripture   Matthew 6:25–26 (NRSV)    Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,   or about your body, what you will wear.   Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?   Look at the birds of the air;   they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,   and yet...

Scripture   Hosea 2:14 (NRSV)    Therefore, I will now allure her,   and bring her into the wilderness,   and speak tenderly to her. Refrain   The wilderness may feel empty but God is here. Poem   Barbara Brown Taylor , from *Learning to Walk in the Dark*   “New life starts in the dark.   Whether it is a seed in the gr...

Scripture   John 15:4–5 (NRSV)    Abide in Me as I abide in you.   Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine,   neither can you unless you abide in Me.   I am the vine, you are the branches.   Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit,   because apart from Me you can do nothing. Refrai...

Scripture   Luke 15:20 (NRSV)    But while he was still far off,   his father saw him and was filled with compassion;   he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Refrain   You waited for me without shame. Quote Brennan Manning , from *The Ragamuffin Gospel*   “Jesus came not for the spiritually elite but for the wobbly and weak-k...

Scripture   Micah 6:8 (NRSV)    He has told you, O mortal, what is good;   and what does the Lord require of you   but to do justice, and to love kindness,   and to walk humbly with your God? Refrain   What is simple is often most sacred. Poem   Wendell Berry , from *The Mad Farmer Liberation Front*   “Love the quick p...

Scripture   Matthew 11:28–30 (NRSV)    “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,   and I will give you rest.   Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;   for I am gentle and humble in heart,   and you will find rest for your souls.   For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Refrain   I l...

Scripture   Psalm 139:23–24 (NRSV)    Search me, O God, and know my heart;   test me and know my thoughts.   See if there is any wicked way in me,   and lead me in the way everlasting. Refrain   In stillness, You show me who I truly am. Quote Thomas R. Kelly , from *A Testament of Devotion*   “Deep within us all there is a wonde...

Scripture   Psalm 73:23–26 (NRSV)    Yet I am always with You;   You hold my right hand.   You guide me with Your counsel,   and afterward You will receive me with honor.   Whom have I in heaven but You?   And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.   My flesh and my heart may fail,   but God...

Scripture   Romans 12:4–5 (NRSV)    For as in one body we have many members,   and not all the members have the same function,   so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,   and individually we are members one of another. Refrain   I do not walk alone, we belong to each other. Quote Desmond Tutu    “My humanity is bound up in...

Scripture   Mark 5:25–34 (NRSV, abridged)    Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.   She had heard about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd   and touched His cloak, for she said,   “If I but touch His clothes, I will be made well.”   Immediately her bleeding stopped;   and Jesus,...

Scripture   1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NRSV)    Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,   which you have from God, and that you are not your own?   For you were bought with a price;   therefore glorify God in your body. Refrain   God dwells in this body, I will honor it as holy. Quote Hildegard of Bingen &...

Scripture   Psalm 46:10 (NRSV)    “Be still, and know that I am God!   I am exalted among the nations,   I am exalted in the earth.”   Refrain   Beneath the noise, Your breath is still here. Quote John Main    “In the silence, we do not pretend to find God—   we allow God to find us.   We do not reach for Him...

Scripture   Isaiah 49:15–16 (NRSV)    Can a woman forget her nursing child,   or show no compassion for the child of her womb?   Even these may forget,   yet I will not forget you.   See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;   your walls are continually before me. Refrain   I rest in hands stronger than my ow...

Scripture   Romans 8:26–27 (NRSV)    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness;   for we do not know how to pray as we ought,   but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.   And God, who searches the heart,   knows what is the mind of the Spirit,   because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to t...

Scripture   Exodus 3:1–5 (NRSV)    Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,   the priest of Midian;   he led his flock beyond the wilderness,   and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.   There the angel of the Lord appeared to him   in a flame of fire out of a bush;   he looked, and the bush was blazing,...

Scripture   2 Corinthians 3:17–18 (NRSV)    Now the Lord is the Spirit,   and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.   And all of us, with unveiled faces,   seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror,   are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another;   for this comes f...

Scripture   Jeremiah 17:7–8 (NRSV)    Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,   whose trust is the Lord.   They shall be like a tree planted by water,   sending out its roots by the stream.   It shall not fear when heat comes,   and its leaves shall stay green;   in the year of drought it is not anxious,   a...

Scripture   Hebrews 11:1–3 (NRSV)    Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,   the conviction of things not seen.   Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.   By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God,   so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Refrain   Even...