Taking the name ...

At the end of our session on kennings and after we had finished filling in our wonderful Bible fish on the first evening, Janet in her inimitable style read this poem she wrote a few months ago. Pause before saying the final two words somewhat expletively.

Taking the name ...

We are all like him:
born once
in a place we don't choose.
subjects of another empire.
Lost as children
by innate curiosity
or poor parenting.
Baptised as adults
by air, fire or water.
We wander,
collecting some,
discarding others,
teaching a few,
healing fewer.
We attend, more or less
to our bodies;
eating, drinking remembering.
At the end
we die once
and forall,
hoping to rise
in love and memory
for fifty days
or more,
In vain we take the name:

Jesus Christ!

copyright (c) Janet A. Lees 2008