Two Sonnets, one new, one old

Two Sonnets – one new, one old
Pentecost 12, John 6: 51-58


Flesh to Eat
How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Not cannibals, communicants are we!
To give his flesh as bread subverts defeat,
forgiving our betrayals yet to be.
So often he disturbs our literal sense,
upsets convention, challenges what’s right,
and then must bear the brunt of our offence,
flesh broken, blood poured out, the looming night.
His body swallowed whole by death and tomb
is by his rising free for all to share:
to eat this bread will make in us the room
for flesh to mate with Spirit if we dare.
Then we will bear the Christ. Our hands and feet
will do his work, creation made complete.
	Barbara Messner 11/08/2021

I am, you are
I am, you are – such insight wisdom seeks,
and being meets with knowing in this Word.
Polemic, fact or fiction, vision, myth –
beyond these masks the Word of truth is heard:
I AM – beyond all matter’s bland disguise.
We see God’s face through Christ’s unflinching eyes,
and Christ through those that give his Spirit room
to breathe that vision, lit with Love’s surprise.
“I am the light,” – our darkness lightens there.
“I am the way,” and life becomes that walk.
“I am the bread,” and so our hungry hearts
are fed abundance far beyond the talk.
“I AM,” he says, and at the end, “I thirst!”
Out of the rock of death, life’s waters burst!
	Barbara Messner circa 2000