Brothers

Date added: 05/01/2017

"You were called to freedom, brothers,

only make sure this freedom does not let sin crouch at your door;

if you are at each other so ferociously,

watch that you do not kill each other:

if you are led by the spirit - with its life-giving harvest

you will not be under the law - with its deadly flesh"

(trans. Gal 5.13-18)

Ever since we fell short to another

to our better brother

that guilt, paralysing, 

left us restless - 

that blood poured out

cries up to the Father,

but what it says 

we dare not consider;

a convicted sinner

holds the withering harvest

out - 

expecting rejection.

Yet that flesh

held out so fresh

rots all the same

and the plain condemnation

that kills Cain kills Abel.

And so two brothers,

away from the Father's house

one concerned with flesh

the other with acceptance

hear it: live in the Spirit.

There

where the flesh counts for nothing

where the fruit is accepted

where the temple crumbles falteringly

where the faltering body becomes a temple

where the restless find home.

So the divisions that plagued races

til the passing of ages

degrades in that crucified embrace

- both brothers so small

at the feet of Christ their all in all.