Tree on a Rainy Sunday
Silver wet tree has drawn me near.
Raindrops and tears anoint my face,
washing me fresh inside and out:
this is a sacrament today.
Gray green on grey, the feathered leaves,
lightly attached, are free to swirl,
wafting elusive cleansing tang:
this is soul remedy today.
Touching the trunk, I flinch at scars,
slashes some heedless ego made,
yet strength and grace remain unmarred:
this is life wisdom shared today.
Though I am small beside such height,
eyes raised to sky, I feel akin,
stirred by uplifted rain glossed limbs:
this is a tender bond today.
Tree met with me in this small park.
Some kind of loving happened here.
Some kind of worship raised a prayer:
“Thanks be to God for rain and tree!”
Barbara Messner 27/10/2026
Let Anyone with Ears Listen
Let Anyone with Ears Listen
All Saints’ Day; Matthew 5:1-11
Let those who use the name of Jesus
in the service of power and prejudice
listen to his counter-cultural wisdom:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit”:
those who are vulnerable, marginalized and mistreated,
not the arrogant, entitled and manipulative.
“Blessed are those who mourn”:
those whose loved ones have been killed by the actions of others,
not those who promote arms and cause violence, addictions and war.
“Blessed are the meek”:
those who work quietly, live simply and do no harm,
not those who trample others in their ambition.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”:
those who protest injustice and oppose abuse of power,
not those who twist the laws with money and political influence.
“Blessed are the merciful”:
those who assist others with sensitive compassion,
not those who denigrate and victimize those who are different.
“Blessed are the pure in heart”:
those who act with integrity and discernment, and explore honestly to find truth,
not those who distort truth to serve their agendas.
“Blessed are the peacemakers”:
those who work for reconciliation and restorative justice,
not those who promote conflict for their own ends, war mongers, demagogues, gang leaders and bullies.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake”:
those who stand up to be counted and are knocked down by repressive laws or inflamed public opinion,
not those who vilify honest opposition, and misuse social media to distort attitudes.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account”:
those who are publicly attacked for speaking and writing about the counter-cultural and inclusive nature of Jesus and God’s preferential option for the poor,
not those who use selected Bible verses quoted out of context to support their own prejudices and judge those who disagree.
Barbara Messner 28/10/2026
The Great Commandments
The Great Commandments – can be sung to tune Sursum Corda, (TiS240)
We’ll love the Lord our God with all our heart:
that pulsing source of life with steadfast beat
which moves our blood to every cell and part
to feed and cleanse our flesh from head to feet.
We’ll love the Lord our God with all our soul:
that blueprint of our being, who we are,
and who we will be when we’re growing whole
and setting sights on meaning like a star.
We’ll love the Lord our God with all our mind:
our reason, questions, learning and the word,
the treasures wisdom stores for us to find,
the insights sparked by what we’ve seen and heard.
We’ll love our neighbour as we love ourself:
love who we are, though we be flawed or odd.
Love will not flower protected on a shelf!
Meet self and other to discover God.
Barbara Messner 21 October 2020
Glory Passing By
Glory Passing By
Pentecost 21; Exodus 33:12-23
There are times when God’s glory is best viewed behind,
lest it wipe out your vision and unhinge your mind.
There are times when you beg glory’s power to unlock,
and you need to be shielded in cleft of the rock.
So it was for this Moses, God wrangling alone,
who in horror had broken the tablets of stone
when he saw what the people had done with their gold:
how he soon was forgotten, God’s worship was sold.
For the one who is breaking, there’s healing in awe:
or perhaps some assurance that God knows the score.
Disillusionment melts when we feel God pass by:
though Gods’ face is still hidden, there’s infinite sky.
There we find inspiration to grow and stand tall:
yet there’s equal unveiling in things that are small,
for the lowly see glory in bird or in leaf:
there’s no need for a shield, tender joy in what’s brief.
Barbara Messner 14/10/2026
Standing in the Breach
Standing in the Breach
Pentecost 20; Exodus 32:1-14; Psalm 106:24; Matthew 22:1-14
Have you ever come down from the mountain
with wise precepts revealed by the Spirit,
strongly worded and carved on stone tablets,
and you know you must show them to others?
Then they slip from your grasp and are shattered
as you see the gold idol and revels.
Can you speak when it’s clear these won’t listen,
both their gold and their gratitude squandered?
Is it part of your calling to argue
against wrathful and harsh retribution?
Will you stand in the breach pleading mercy,
faithful forbears and covenant promise?
Have you ever gone out with a message
calling people to come to the banquet?
They make light of it, say they’re too busy
mistreat messengers, courting destruction.
Are you sent to the streets then to gather
good and bad to be guests at the banquet?
Wedding robes are free gifts, but if someone
does not wear one, he’s thrown into darkness.
In our world there are idols and revels,
and wise ethical principles shattered.
There’s disdain for the Son’s wedding banquet,
and refusing will have repercussions.
From the cross he said, “Father, forgive them
for they do not know what they are doing?”
Incarnation is willing to suffer
harm we do to the Earth and each other.
See, our God who is love is not vengeful.
The creation is loved into being
and made new in Christ’s dying and rising.
His commandment is “Love one another!”
Barbara Messner 8/10/2026
The Stars Still Sing
The Stars Still Sing
Pentecost 19; revised as a reflection on Psalm 19:1-6
The stars still sing, but who can hear the music?
The clouds still dance, but who can feel the beat?
The Earth still speaks, if we can learn to listen.
The Spirit leads, if we can trust our feet.
Switch off the city lights and let the stars be bright.
Who knows how well we might be rested on such nights?
Switch off the cars and stay quite still beneath the sky!
Stars can entrance the eye with depths beyond the day.
The stars still sing in resonating swilence.
The clouds still dance in sun and wind and heat.
The Earth still speaks, so learn from those who listen.
The Spirit leads if insight guides our feet.
Walk out beyond your walls and dare to lift your face.
Stand there outside your place and hear the word that calls.
Sap rises, seed pods swell, roots tunnel in the ground,
Earth rolls upon its round and tides toll like a bell.
The stars still sing, in waves that cross the darkness.
The clouds still dance as air and water meet.
The Earth still speaks its agony and beauty.
The Spirit leads, as heart and soul move feet.
Our days are carried on as fullness ebbs and flows.
Harvest time comes and goes as constellations turn.
Purpose has shaped the stars: that word can still be ours.
Spirit can wield its powers despite our mental bars.
The stars still sing their constellations’ stories.
The clouds still dance, sunlit like glory’s seat.
The Earth still speaks, our bodies know that language.
The Spirit leads, puts wings upon our feet.
Barbara Messner revised 29/09/2026
Making Space for the God of the Cosmos
(I’ve had a delightfully hectic week with a sister and nephew from Queensland so I’m posting this poem from ten years ago. The water-damaged church building which had housed the St. Michael and All Angels congregation at Bridgewater has just been sold for renovation, but the congregation hire a hall on Sunday mornings and are as active and articulate as always, bless them.)
For the patronal festival and Cosmos Sunday in the Season of Creation 2016 at St. Michael and All Angels, Bridgewater SA
What does it take to see the stars?
Our gaze is settled on the ground.
Those minute pinpoints in the night
are blazing suns immensely far
beyond us, yet our city lights
have dimmed them, and we’re less aware.
When we were young, we’d go outside
to gaze beyond ourselves in awe,
and search to find the Southern Cross
as though to anchor us in space
amidst that wheeling panoply
of alien suns and worlds and lives.
Now though the internet provides
an image of a nebula
like angels spreading out their wings,
somehow we can’t accept there might
be angels like a radiant cloud
of awesome energy and light.
In earlier times, the heavens were ours,
a roof for Earth, and further on
and up, we’d place the realm of God
to which we might aspire through Christ,
when earthly life was laid aside
and angels brought us gently home.
But in this cosmos we are small,
and up and down are all around,
and God’s creating so immense
in light and energy and fire
that somehow interact to spark
the miracles of diverse life.
Where then are we, but specks of dust
upon a small and fragile rock
that whirls around a minor sun?
Is heaven all around us now,
and God both present and beyond,
more awesome than we ever dreamed?
On every world where beings live
the God of being surely is,
and comes as Christ to share that life,
that death, and hope of life beyond.
Do they like us refuse to look
beyond the limits of their space?
Are we the blindest of the blind,
who gaze on screens and call that life,
domesticating mystery
until we think we’re only dust?
Do angels try to draw our eyes
out to the many worlds beyond
where light flows on at constant speed,
and gravity will always draw
all bodies to relationship,
and mass to energy transforms?
Are these all forms of truth and love
and Spirit, energy from God?
The resurrected Christ it seems
still bore the stamp of earthly life
beyond the limits of space/time.
His flesh and spirit shifted place
with both still present but transformed,
ascending into cosmic Christ.
When Michael threw the fallen ones
upon the earth, our souls were drawn
to idolize the physical.
So angel messengers descend
and lift our spirits. Then God’s Word
will find a space in us for birth.
Barbara Messner September 2016
The Last Will Be First
The Last Will Be First
Pentecost 17; Matthew 20:1-16
The parables portray a grace-filled world
where straying sheep are found, not left to die,
where precious seed is with abandon hurled
on good ground and where stones and weeds might lie.
In graced economies, the last are hired,
for one hour’s work receive a whole day’s pay.
Those who came first, observing what transpired,
expecting more, are paid just for the day.
Such pay is generous to meet the need
of those not chosen, left until the last.
The owner pays them first so they can feed
their families, who otherwise must fast.
The first complain, “Not fair!”, but is it fair
that some have more and never think to share?
Barbara Messner 16/09/2026
Dilemmas of Forgiveness
Dilemmas of Forgiveness
Pentecost 16; Matthew 18:21-35
If someone sins against us,
Jesus said we should forgive
not seven times but seventy-seven,
but how do we forgive those who harm
or kill one dearly loved, and can we forgive
ourselves those tragic errors
we fervently and futilely wish undone?
Did his followers manage to forgive
the soldiers who nailed him to the cross,
the imperial governor, religious establishment
and shouting crowds who condemned him,
or one of their own who betrayed him?
Yet Jesus prayed: “Father forgive them
for they do not know what they are doing.”
Judas could not forgive himself
though he threw back the silver
and tried to undo the apparent betrayal
intended perhaps to precipitate revolution.
Did Jesus, descending to the dead,
seek him out and forgive him?
What of Peter who denied knowing Jesus
in fear for his own life, and who wept
bitterly in remorse as the cock crowed?
Did he swim naked seeking forgiveness?
Did three avowals of love cancel
those three craven negations?
Did his commissioning as pastor
convince him of absolution,
or was his upside-down crucifixion
his final instalment of humbled courage
in repayment for that shamed weakness?
Forgiveness is no superficial bandaid.
Though we say the words and hear them
and know them to be healing,
ongoing inner vigilance is needed
lest dormant infection flare up and spread,
tainting our best intentions.
Barbara Messner 9/09/2026
Do Not Despise These Little Ones
Do Not Despise These Little Ones
Pentecost 15; Matthew 18:10-20
If churches think that numbers show success,
he says he’s there with only two or three;
Christ’s presence may be lost amidst a crowd
where few can see who anyone might be.
If angels of the little ones see God
and adults need to look with childlike eyes,
why say: “Grow up! Don’t dream! Achieve!”
when children have a knowing that is wise?
Our Earth cannot sustain our lust for growth;
the blandishments of more leave us with less.
If first is last and last is first, what lies
promote this headlong scramble for success?
In flocks of thousands, who knows one has strayed?
A shepherd living with the sheep would know
if one of those, each known by name, is lost,
and more than that, where such a one might be.
To seek the one when ninety-nine are left
shows trust in how the flock will hold its ground,
and care for one another as they graze,
and share the joy when one they miss is found.
As wise and patient care restores a stray,
so conflict that is honestly addressed
in person, or with one or two who hear,
may, in Christ’s presence, be resolved and blessed.
Barbara Messner 2/09/2026
