This week is Holy week. Last week was incredible and exhilarating, and I am grateful to you all for engaging in the conversation. But, it has left me feeling as though I have been shouting into a crowded room for a week. In order to honor Holy week, and allow my heart time to prepare for Easter, I will be posting here some poetry I had the opportunity to write for my church during lent.

 

He Is Lord

Jesus is Lord

Jesus is Lord

He is Lord of my Life

He is Lord of Creation

Hallelujah,

Jesus is Lord

I have seen them on the TV in their thousand dollar suits,

With their private Jets, His and Her Jaguars,

Front row seats at a Lakers game.

I have seen them proclaiming that God is sovereign,

That they have all of these things because Jesus is their Lord.

Lord over what? I wonder.

 

Surely this is not the same Jesus I heard tell

The last shall be first and the first shall be last.

I think about just how much he gave away,

When he had too much, it was all passed out

No one was thirsty or hungry that day on that hill so long and far away.

 

I wonder if that same Jesus could bless with money, power, favors

To be hoarded and spent on self.

I wonder if it is possible for a man to have Jesus

Be Lord over his heart…but not his wallet.

 

Jesus is Lord

Jesus is Lord

He is Lord of my Life

He is Lord of me Heart

Hallelujah,

Jesus is Lord

 

I see them with their picket signs, their angry faces,

their offensive slurs.  I see them

With their poster board covered

In constructions paper flames.

They tell me they are yelling because Jesus is their Lord?

But who is their Jesus?

Is their Jesus the one who quietly went to the cross,

the one who came not to condemn the world but save it?

Surely not him.

People who have Jesus as Lord in their life,

I just don’t think they would act like that.

 

Jesus is Lord

 Jesus is Lord

He is Lord of my Life

He is Lord of my Heart

Hallelujah,

Jesus is Lord

 

I got cut off yesterday.

The guy actually zoomed around me,

Honked until I looked over at him so he could flip me off

And then pulled in front of me so closely

I could see the dew still fresh on his bumper.

That dew made the Jesus fish sparkle in the morning sun.

It was right next to the bumper sticker proclaiming

The driver’s boss is a Jewish carpenter.

Can Jesus be the boss of someone,

But not the way they drive?

 

Jesus is Lord

 Jesus is Lord

He is Lord of my Life

He is Lord of my Heart

Hallelujah,

Jesus is Lord

 

These people I see are not the only ones

Who make me question the Lordship of Jesus.

Mostly I see the confusion in my own heart.

 

Jesus is Lord

 

How much to I have to give up?

If I am going to say that Jesus  is Lord.

Can he be Lord of my heart but not my body?

 

Jesus is Lord

 

Can he be Lord of my mind

But not my money?

 

He is Lord of my Life

 

Can he be Lord of Sundays when I keep

The work week to do just exactly what I want?

 

He is Lord of my Heart

 

If Jesus is Lord of my heart and my life,

Can I still be in charge of who I forgive,

How much grace to give out and the strings attached to it?

 

Hallelujah,

Jesus is Lord

 

If people looked into my heart

Into my bank account

Into the way that I drive

If people knew my forgiveness

My anxiety, the need to know what is next

My inability to love my neighbor

 

I wonder if they would think that Jesus is Lord

I wonder if I think that Jesus is Lord.

Or if I just proclaim it.

 

Hallelujah.