Lenten Gestures - Gaining

Matthew 25:21

"His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’"

The day will come

when all that we have been given

and all that we have sown

will unearth the topography of plentitude.

There exists a land of mystery

where we gain more abundantly

by loosening the grip of our hands,

drink from the infinite stream of grace,

trusting that what we have been given

is enough for each day.

We have been called and entrusted

with gifts that are not ours to keep.

We receive these gifts with open hands

and through these uncoiled hands

we knit delicately

the work of art that unveils

the possibilities

of the reign of a new economy,

a new way of life

in which those who drink will thirst no longer.

To be called good

by the source of the Good

to be called faithful

from the One who is always faithful

is to be inducted

into a metaphysics of love

that will only grow

by the virtue of being shared.

This is the alchemy in which

the gold we bury turns to dust

and the dust we surrender

turns into gold.

What we have been given

is with us now

waiting to be discovered

to be seen

to be sowed

to be shared

to make abundant a world

that has been made small

by the fences between

what is yours

and what is mine.

The kingdom near

becomes the kingdom here

when those who are faithful

transpose the utterances

from "mine"

to "Thine"

and sprinkle generously the divine gifts

into the fields that knew only

the stifling metrics of scarcity.

We have not been given these gifts

to secure our lot in the skies.

Our gain

is not the riches of the land

nor treasures of the sea

but the invitation into the making of a new territory

in which heaven meets the earth

and the earth receives her inheritance.

We reach our hands out

and dip our fingers into an unending pool of love.

The more generously

We pour

onto the canvas of the earth

the more we see

That the home we have been longing for

Is being made here.

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Art: Dea Jenkins | (untitled) | mixed media: watercolor, paper | 2020

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Practice: Response Poetry

1. Read Erin Choi's poem silently.
2. Read the poem again, this time out loud.
3. Select one line from the poem and respond to it by writing your own poem.