10/30/2016
Isaiah 55
Chris Breslin
(with artists and creatives from the Communion Arts Project: Alexandra Harper, Jessina Leonard, Alex Burchette, Josh Neipp, Nate Hood, Austin Wilson, & Marcus Walton)
It is for all
‘literalists of the imagination,’
poets or not,
that miracle
is possible,
possible and essential.
Are some intricate minds
nourished
on concept,
as epiphytes flourish
high in the canopy?
Can they
subsist on the light,
on the half
of metaphor that’s not
grounded in dust, grit,
heavy
carnal clay?
Do signs contain and utter,
for them
all the reality
that they need? Resurrection, for them,
an internal power, but not
a matter of flesh?
For others,
of whom I am one,
miracles (ultimate need, bread
of life) are miracles just because
people so tuned
to the humdrum laws:
gravity, mortality-
can’t open
to symbol’s power
unless convinced of its ground,
its roots
in bone and blood.
We must feel
the pulse in the wound
to believe
that ‘with God
all things
are possible,’
taste
bread at Emmaus
that warm hands
broke and blessed.
-“On Belief in the Physical Resurrection of Jesus” by Denise Levertov
Scripture
This Sunday’s Songs
Brokenness Aside by Leonard/Jordan
Pass Us Not O Gentle Savior by Crosby/Doane
Come, for the Feast is Spread by Burton/Gordon
God With Us by Ingram/Jordan
All Who Are Thirsty by Brown/Robertson
Come to the Table (Isaiah 55) by Wilson
Our Heavenly Father by Montgomery/Benedict
Further Reading on the Lord’s Prayer
Prayer by Karl Barth
The Theology of the Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham
Lord’s Prayer by Leonardo Boff
Matthew (The Christbook) by F. Dale Bruner
The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon
A Meal with Jesus by Tim Chester
Becoming the Answers to Our Prayers by Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Lord’s Prayer: A Missional Reading by Nijay Gupta (at Missio Alliance)
Bread and Wine by Sheana Niequist
Our Father by Alexander Schmemann
The Lord’s Prayer: Confessing the New Covenant by J. Warren Smith
Eat With Joy by Rachel Marie Stone
On the Lord’s Prayer by Tertullian, Cyprian, & Origen
Our Heavenly Father by Helmut Thielicke
The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
Lord, Teach Us by Stanley Hauerwas & Will Willimon
Food & Faith by Norman Wirzba
The Radical Politics of Fellowship (Divinity Magazine, Fall 2016) by Norman Wirzba
Ain’t Too Proud to Beg by Telford Work
The Lord & His Prayer by N.T. Wright
