Poem for Christ the King Sunday

The Kingdom   

It’s a long way off but inside it

there are quite different things going on;

festivals at which the poor man

is king and the consumptive is

healed; mirrors in which the blind look

at themselves and love looks at them

back; and industry is for mending

the bent bones and the minds fractured

by life.  It’s a long way off, but to get                          

there takes no time and admission

is free, if you will purge yourself

of desire, and present yourself with

your need only and the simple offering

of your faith, green as a leaf.

R.S.Thomas   1913 – 2000

Christ the King: At Easter we sang (to the tune “What shall we do with the drunken sailor”) the gloriously irreverent song: “We have a king who rides a donkey, and his name is Jesus.  Hooray the King is risen, Early in the morning.”  RS Thomas gives us a glimpse of what is going on in Christ’s surprising upside down kingdom.   Let’s offer ourselves as servants of this king and wave our little green leaves of faith and healing in his service.

-Tina Lamb