On Retiring as Associate Priest in an Anglican Parish Time now to fold and put away (well within reach on a central shelf) words I’ve been privileged to say, robes that both stirred and covered self. Tears fall in soft autumnal grief; letting them flow releases me. Tightness unwinds and brings relief; eyes look around and start to see. There on those shelves are garments tossed, jumbled aside in a pressured hour, colours once loved and crafts I’ve lost: some I discard while some might flower. Clasped in that role, I shrank and grew; cramped and controlled, but yet revealed. I moved beyond the me I knew, though there are parts of me unhealed. Now though I keenly feel the loss, something with wings is freed outside. Stone rolled aside, but still the cross questions humanity denied. Christ is still striding on ahead; I face a road half-known and strange. Other hands raise the wine and bread; time to receive, let spirit range. Barbara Messner 9/03/2022
A Lament over the City
A Lament over the City Lent 2; Luke 13:31-35 It’s the city, colluding with thrones, that still murders the prophets, and stones anyone who is sent here to save. There’s no space for Christ’s mothering care in the jostling of many who glare crying “Crucify! Crucify him!” Though our God has wide sheltering wings, who is willing to gather and cling when enticed by our secular powers? So lament, for our house will be left, and the planet itself soon bereft. Christ will weep, still intent on his way. He’ll find demons and maladies here, for we feed them and bid them come near. Will we ever be fit for his cures? O my Lord, will the time ever come, when we bless the one bearing your name, and our hearts will catch fire in your flame? Barbara Messner 8/03/2022
Temptations in the Wilderness
Temptations in the Wilderness Lent 1; Luke 4:1-15 I have walked that wilderness, breathed its gritty, brazen air. Seems our culture lodges there! Voices work on our distress, tempting us to be secure – “Wealth can happiness ensure!” Spirit dreams evaporate! Bread is conjured out of stones, our reward as worker drones. “You can master petty fate! Power will help you keep your nerve! Just don’t question who you serve!” “Then if you aspire to fame, risky stunts you can’t refuse. Time them well to make the news! Soon you’ll be a household name, guest star on a TV show. It’s not what but who you know.” He who blocked that tempting voice with God’s word would dare the cross. While we hide from pain of loss, his is the transforming choice. Let us in that wasteland find Word of God for minds half-blind. Barbara Messner 1/03/2022
The Churches of St. Moses, St. Elijah and St. Jesus on the Mountain
The Churches of St. Moses, St. Elijah and St. Jesus on the Mountain Last Sunday after Epiphany – Transfiguration; Luke 9:28-43 It is upon the mountaintop that light transfigures features that we thought we knew, and we are dazzled seeing what’s beyond as past and future balance on that peak, and in that moment God and prophets speak. We vow that vision will remain in sight, and yet the words to compass it are few. We hope we might from looming loss abscond; he leads us down to failure on the plain. Would buildings draw us to those heights again? If churches stood, would light return as bright? Would vision still be shared and counted true? When pilgrims journeyed there, would they feel conned if Moses and Elijah were stained glass, no voice-over from God though clouds still pass? We need to know we have no copyright on revelation, or on life made new. The mountain top can stir us to respond if he has challenged us to make the climb, but building walls can’t hold us in that time. Barbara Messner 22/02/2022
Loving my Enemy
Loving my Enemy Epiphany 7; Luke 6:27-38 To call that man my enemy would seem too strong a claim, yet still I feel unloving, remembering his name. A bully in the workplace the three of us agreed. It’s fifteen years behind me, and still I am not freed. One dived into a bottle, one left for pastures green. I plodded on, diminished, with wounds that felt unclean. I never learnt to stand there and turn the other cheek, though fight and flight had failed me, and tears and fears seemed weak. So Jesus, though your teaching could truly set me free, and keep the world from warfare, how hard it seems to be! I try to understand him, his hidden hurt and strain. I see the need for loving, but anger clings to pain. The secret of forgiveness – “They know not what they do!” – is born of such deep loving it can make all things new. I pray to want renewal: undo this knot within, so I look back unflinching, and let your love flow in. Barbara Messner 15/02/2022
Blessings and Woes
Blessings and Woes Epiphany 6; Luke 6:17-26 Confront us with the mystery that blessing graces misery while fortune loads the dice for woe! Our poverty can strip away the gilded idols of our day, while wealth can stifle what might grow. Our hunger seeks out nourishment and hungry souls will be content with nothing short of Spirit source, but bellies filled beyond excess find illness shows them more is less, and vacant souls have no recourse. Our grieving can unveil the heart, and though we painfully depart, our journey opens us to joy, while those who mock and laugh and play will blunder on their merry way to face the depths that can destroy. There’s blessing in rejection too: the hateful words they hurl at you bounce off the Word that God reveals, while those who pay the price of fame risk losing their God-given name, seduced by flattering appeals. Barbara Messner 8/02/2022
Fishing and Following
Fishing and Following Epiphany 5; Luke 5 1-11 Lord, don’t forsake the work of your own hands! Like Simon, we have laboured in the dark, then washed our empty nets upon the sands. Our sense of failure leaves a hurtful mark. Can we, like Simon, weary as we are, set out again a little way from shore, and face whoever comes from near or far, and let the Word stir up our hidden core? If Christ then bids us sail to probe the deep, can we do as he says, although we doubt that there is any bounty there to reap? And might we find more than we dare draw out? And once we hold abundance in our hands, what if he says, “Leave all upon the sands?” Barbara Messner 1/02/2022
Hometown Rejection
Hometown Rejection Epiphany 4; Luke 4:21-30 They drove him out and pushed him to the brink, so keen were they to shake him from the height of vision that he claimed, to see him shrink back to the mundane faith that they deemed right. He did not think of ways he might placate, but named the pettiness of their demand that wanted wonders served them on a plate, but would not see his right to such command. His quotes from Scripture further stoked their rage. he showed the narrowness of local pride: how prophets worked beyond the self-made cage of race or clan, for miracles are wide. They thought the threat of death might win the day; he passed among them and went on his way. Barbara Messner 25/01/2022
Desolation, Consolation, Desolation
Desolation, Consolation, Desolation Epiphany 3; Luke 4:1-30 Filled by the Spirit, he is teaching, honed by harsh tests and raw beseeching. Fame after wilderness temptation: consolation follows desolation. Look, how that cycle gets inverted – those who admired him still deserted. Praised by the people and invited, he sees how soon is wrath ignited. Reading Isaiah, he is feeling he is the one to bring them healing. This they reject – he’s just a local! How could he dare to be so vocal! He claims that he’s the one anointed, there in the midst of those appointed. Synagogue leaders stand affronted! He’s not the preacher they had wanted! How dare he claim to be God’s servant in words so challenging and fervent! “Scripture fulfilled within our hearing?” Let’s set about his disappearing! Barbara Messner 19/01/2022
Transformation Time
Transformation Time Epiphany 2; John 2:1-11 Sometimes, like Mary at the wedding feast, I see a need in those for whom I care, and point it out to God, hoping at least, if I dare ask, the cupboard won’t stay bare. Like Jesus, God might say, “Now what concern is that for you or me? It’s not my hour.” Oh, let me love like Mary; let me learn a patience that still hopes for grace to shower. “Do what he tells you,” Mary dared to say, and they put water in and drew out wine. The steward thought it strange at end of day to offer drunken guests a drink so fine. At transformation time, one task is mine – to draw the water, trusting in the wine. Barbara Messner 13/01/2022
Barb, poet priest 