Holy Week, free and clear

It*s been four and a half years since I left parish ministry.  Without a doubt Holy Week has been the time I have missed being in the role the most, particularly the liturgy planning role.   This year it seems I have turned a corner.  This year it seems I can face into it and do it with my eyes open, even when the monstrance makes its yearly appearance on Maundy Thursday.    

At least my birthday is not on Good Friday

This year.

I can encounter all of Holy Week

Free and clear and newly 57.

Now I am back in priest skin.

I have mostly grown accustomed

To my part in the liturgy

From two pews back

On the right.

Sometime I even arrive late

Just before the Gospel.

This is Holy Week number four.

I know what to expect

In this place.

I may be able to pray it here

This year,

Not rail against the oddities,

Nor find the sticky places.

I may even be able to keep my eyes open

When the monstrance appears,

Take my turn

In the Garden of Repose.

There is a distinct possibility

I may encounter all of Holy Week

Free and clear

Two pews back

On the right.

Free Rides

Yes, another driving metaphor.  I guess there are themes :)   I began this thinking about how difficult it is to ask for rides, and how in some ways I*d just as soon stay at home than ask for a ride.  But there are people who have offered rides free and clear and I know it is free and clear of any tolls which show up on the bill later.   Often they are folk who have been through similar things and know what it means not to drive for awhile, or for more than awhile.  As I wrote, I remembered Pastor Davis, sent back into my life in January, recognizing me from across the parking lot at Staples in Bolingbrook.  God-sent.  I knew he was God-sent.  And he is reminder today of things given free and clear, God in the midst.

It seems free rides

Are often anything but free.

They extract a toll even

When no money is involved.

They are like the automatic tickers

On the tollroads,

Noticed when the credit card expires,

The I-Pass account has run low.

There is a tollbooth collector

At Boughton and 355.

He pastors a congregation

For free.

He used to wave me on through

When he could,

Always asked about family.

When he said God bless you

He meant it.

I use I-Pass now.

No pastor in the tollbooth for me.

I rarely even pass Boughton and 355.

When I bought IKEA furniture for the office

In January,

I found him in the parking lot

At  Staples,

Waving, shouting

I thought it was you

It had to be you.

God bless you!

He works on the tollway,

Pastors a congregation for free.

He knows free rides.

He still knows how to give rides

Free and clear.