[Dialogue] Poetry from the bishop Spong 12/19

[KroegerD at aol.com]

December 19, 2007  
Dear Friends,  
On December 24th, 1974 I delivered in my Church in Richmond, Virginia, a  
sermon, which sought to put the Christmas story into a modern context through  
the medium of poetry. It was based on an earlier poem I had written, entitled  
Christpower. In 1975 this Christmas piece was incorporated into and  published 
along with other poems of mine in a limited, coffee table size volume,  all of 
which were arranged by a gifted Richmond poet named Lucy Newton Boswell  
Negus. When that printing was sold out, like so many other books, it became  
little more than a memory. When I published JESUS FOR THE NON-RELIGIOUS in 2007,  
however, I decided to frame the content of that book between a new poem (my  
first in almost thirty years), entitled The Lament of a Believer in Exile, and  
the original Christpower poem. These two pieces, acting as bookends for  the 
new book, told the story of my own theological growth and development. That  
book then created new interest in the original CHRISTPOWER volume,  causing St. 
Johann’s Press in Haworth, New Jersey, to bring it out again in an  edited, 
revised, updated and inclusive language version. This happened in  November of 
2007. For my Christmas column today I offer the updated version of  that 
Christmas story in poetry, now newly available. I hope it brings with it  the 
meaning of this season for all my readers.  
I thank you for being part of this growing community of people who through  
this column seek the eternal meaning beneath the traditional symbols of the  
ancient Christ story. A blessed Christmas to you all.  
John Shelby Spong  
 
____________________________________
Christpower



Far back  beyond the beginning,
stretching out into the unknowable,  
incomprehensible, 
unfathomable depths, dark and void 
of infinite  eternity behind all history, 
the Christpower was alive. 
This was the
living
bursting, pulsing
generating,  creating
smoldering,  exploding
fusing,  multiplying
emerging,  erupting
pollenizing,  inseminating
heating,  cooling
power of life itself: Christpower. 
And it was good! 
Here
all things that we know
began their journey into being.  
Here
light separated from darkness. 
Here
Christpower began to take  form. 
Here
life became real,
and that life spread into
emerging new  creatures
evolving
into  ever higher intelligence. 
There was a sacrifice here
and
a mutation there. 
There was grace  and resurrection appearing
in their natural order, 
occurring,  recurring, 
and always driven by the restless, 
creating,  
energizing
life  force of God, called the Christpower, 
which flowed in the veins of every  living thing
for ever
and  ever
and  ever
and  ever.
And it was good! 
In time, in this  universe, 
there emerged creatures who were called human, 
and the  uniqueness of these creatures
lay in that they could
perceive
this  life-giving power. 
They could name it
and embrace it
and grow with it
and yearn for it.  
Thus human life was  born, 
but individual expressions of that human life
were marked with a  sense of
incompleteness,  
inadequacy,  
and  a hunger
that drove them ever beyond the self
to search for life’s  secret
and
to seek the source of life’s power. 
This was a humanity  that could not be content with
anything less. 
And once again
in  that process
there was
sacrifice  and mutation, 
grace  and resurrection
now in the human order, 
occurring,  recurring
And it was good! 
Finally, in the  fullness of time,
within that human family,
one
unique and special  human life  appeared:
whole
complete
free
loving
living
being
at  one
at peace
at rest.
In that life was seen with new intensity
that primal power of the  universe,
Christpower.
And it was good!
Of that life people said: Jesus,
you  are the Christ,
for in you we see
and  feel
and  experience
the living force of life
and  love
and  being
of God.
He was  hated,
rejected,
betrayed,
killed,
but
he  was never distorted. 
For here was a life in which
the goal, the dream,  the hope
of all life
is achieved.
A single life among  many lives.
Here
among us, out from us,
and yet this power, this  essence,
was not from us at all,
for the Christpower that was seen in  Jesus
is finally of God.
And even when the  darkness of death overwhelmed him,
the power of life resurrected him;
for  Christpower is life
eternal,
without  beginning,
without  ending.
It is the secret of creation.
It is the goal of  humanity.
Here in this life we  glimpse
that immortal
invisible
most  blessed
most  glorious
almighty  life-giving force
of this universe
in startling completeness
in  a single person.
Men and women tasted the power that was in him
and they were made whole by  it.
They entered a new freedom,
a  new being. 
They knew resurrection and what it means to live
in the  Eternal Now. 
So they became agents of that power,
sharing those gifts  from generation to generation,
creating and re-creating,
transforming,  redeeming,
making all things new.
And as this power moved among human beings,
light
once  more separated from darkness.
And it was good!
They searched for the words to describe
the moment that recognized the  fullness of this power
living in history,
living in the life of this  person.
But words failed them.
So they lapsed into  poetry: 
When this life was born,
they  said,
a great light split the dark sky.
Angelic choruses peopled  the heavens
to sing of peace on earth.
They told of a virgin mother,
of  shepherds compelled to worship,
of a rejecting world that had no room in the  inn.
They told of stars and oriental kings,
of gifts of gold,  frankincense, and myrrh.
For when this life was born
that power that was
and  is
with  God,
inseparable,
the endless beginning,
was seen
even in a  baby
in swaddling clothes
lying in a manger.
Christpower.
Jesus, you are the Christ.
To know you is to live,
to  love,
to  be.
O come, then, let us adore him!
John  Shelby Spong 
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
In keeping with the Christmas season for the Question and Answer part of this 
 column, I would like to publish with the permission of its author, Joy 
Cowley, a  Roman Catholic Christian from Auckland, New Zealand, her translation of 
the  words of Mary's Song from the birth narrative of the Gospel of Luke. That 
song,  called "The Magnificat," can be found in Luke 1:46-55. Joy understands 
the  essential task of the modern disciple of Jesus to make yesterday's words 
capable  of being understood in the words of the 21st century. I am grateful 
to her for  her gift.  
John Shelby Spong  
My soul sings in gratitude.
I'm dancing in the mystery of God.
The  light of the Holy One is within me
and I am blessed, so truly blessed.
This goes deeper than human thinking.
I am filled with awe
at Love whose only  condition
is to be  received.
The gift is not for the proud,
for they have no room for it.
The strong and self-sufficient ones
don't have this awareness.
But those who know their emptiness
can rejoice in Love's fullness.
It's the Love that we are made for,
the reason for our being.
It fills our inmost heart space
and brings to birth in us, the Holy One.
Joy Cowley, Auckland, New Zealand 



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