Show Me the Blaze that Won’t Consume
Pentecost 14; Exodus 3:1-15; Matthew 16:21-28
I’ve tended flocks I was assigned
by patriarchs and hierarchs.
I spent some years in wilderness
and moved beyond and came at times
in sight of heights and spirit fire,
and still I cry, “Show me the blaze
that won’t consume and leave me ash.
I’ll walk barefoot to such a flame.”
Now people cry in misery,
abused in modern Pharoahs’ lands.
Your name’s misused or seldom heard:
they worship just their own “I am!”
The God of being has no place:
this is not new, for Jesus told
how he would suffer and be killed
at hands of elders, priests and scribes.
Does he repay what has been done?
He said, “Forgive for they don’t know!”
I follow him but still I ask,
“What must be lost and what be saved?”
If in the Christ I find myself,
how can I speak of needed loss
when I too cling to what I’ve gained?
Barbara Messner 27/08/2026
Barb, poet priest 