Hotel Ecclesiastica

i've seen the dry tears of actors

the disclaiming violence of the sincere

their ears are plugged life other ears

their eyes blocked like other eyes

their lies sour like other lies

their rules kill like other rules

their taste for life is like other tastes

they abandon those who are their own

i fuss and cuss like all the rest

being part and parcel of the mess

while my protests on deaf ears rest

a sinner midst sinners in its nest

*Thoughts of Frederick Buechner:

  -Just suppose  for the sake of an admittedly fantastic argument that he is the One who is to come, full of grace and truth and all that.  Have you ever considered, have I whose trade it is to consider it really considered seriously, just what it is that the Lamb of God is going to have to take away?

   I mean if I have any inclination at all, or you, to start being whatever in God's name it means to be "a child of God" - and let's say there is no argument for having such an inclination but let's just suppose that at certain unguarded moments we have it, this inclination to start being children of God - have we any idea at all what by the grace of God we are in all likelihood going to have to stop being, stop doing, stop having, stop pretending, stop smacking our lips over, stop hating, stop being scared of, stop chasing after till we're blue in the face and sick at the stomach?  O God, deliver us from the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world because the sin of the world is our heart's desire, our uniform, our derby hat.  O Lamb of God, have mercy upon us.  Christ have mercy upon us. 

  -Passion without wisdom to give it shape and direction is as empty as wisdom without passion to give it power and purpose.