I had never thought of it before
But if you read between the lines
Jesus taught sitting
And those who listened were standing
I like to think of them as eager
Standing on tip-toe
Leaning forward, engaged, ready to learn
But more, ready to hit the road
ready to walk into the world and carry with them
the gifts of the teacher
ready to talk the talk
but more, to walk the walk
ah, that standing crowd
I wonder if Jesus ever said
“you had better sit down for this”
As he taught the radicality of Sacred love
Blessed are the poor
Those who mourn
Blessed are the servants
And the truth-tellers
Blessed are those who expend themselves for others
Who put it all out there
All that they have, all that they are
For the cause of love
Blessed are those who feed the hunger
Give water to the thirsty
Welcome the stranger
And visit those excluded and shunned
Blessed are you
When following my way
Does not get you to the corner office
Does NOT get you elected
Does not make you wealthy, or powerful, or comfortable
But causes you trouble
The trouble of seeing the pain around you
I wonder if their knees sagged a little
as those words sank into their souls
I wonder if they walked away confused?
Or excited!
Or Sad.
I do know this
They did not sit there
Semi-comatose
Listening to words that barely registered
Jesus did not speak down to them,
He spoke up to them
And whether they got it or not
Whether they understood deeply, or in part
Whether they were willing to embrace the way
Or whether they rejected it
they carried a little bit of Jesus with them
when they left that place
Perhaps we have it all wrong
With our preachers in pulpits and the people in the pews
It seems this is not a sitting faith
But a standing faith
A walking faith
a faith we take with us
on the road
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