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Mr. H’s Ordination

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Do you trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, acknowledge him Lord of all and Head of the Church, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

—the first question for ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Well, do you?

It’s not a choosing, or a being chosen,

not a choice but the end of choices.

It’s the wild mounting desperation

of holding your breath under water

until the will submits, is overcome

by the mindless lungs’ irrational demand.

Even if it drowns you like a rat.

Do you trust like that, Mr. H?

Who cares a fig for Lords and Heads?

This is existential, not ecclesial.

We’re talking oxygen, on those days

when a body’s desperate to breathe,

days when everything comes crashing,

when the sacred All-in-All amounts to nothing

and Christ’s Body yields its neck to the guillotine.

Do you trust when times are lean, Mr. H?

Three in one and one in three: an axiom

of theology. But the only Trinity

we trust is world and death and fire

(as often smothered as smoldering).

In the pitch-black cave-dark, we intuit

light. Reach out and touch the triune rock:

creation’s basement, our prison, and reprieve.

Is that what you believe, Mr. H?

These skittish truths we harness to our stars

come uneasily to words; they bolt

like rabbits down a hole or flit

like wrens to branches just beyond our reach.

Best teach the tongue restraint and watch your feet

along this darkling path we’re following.

It’s easier to stumble than to rise.

Will that suffice to make you wise, Mr. H?

Days and Times

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