Poems, Sermons and Writings

By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36612630 Amos 5:14-15,18-24  The Amos reading starts halfway through chapter 5, if we had read the first part you would have seen this is one of three places in scripture where Matariki is mentioned - in our Bibles it is called Pleiades. It seems appropriate to be reading that so close to our own celebration of Matariki.  Having just handed in my own essay this week - I was tickled pink to read the beginning of one commentator on Amos.  “One can imagine a creative-writing instructor praising fiery Amos for the “punch” in this passage, with effusive comments in red pen at the top of the paper (“Excellent hyperbole!” “Evocative images!”), brackets around standout phrases, and “Great similes!” written in the margins alongside: justice like waters, righteousness like a stream, darkness like fleeing from a lion and running smack into a bear. Amos generates some provocative poetry, but as companions g...

  Matt 28:1010 Oh, well, a-bless my soul, what's wrong with me? … Oh, well, my hands are shaky, and my knees are weak I can't seem to stand on my own two feet … I'm in love I'm all shook up Hm, ooh, yeah-yeah, yeah To quote another song title - there’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on here in the gospel of Matthew.   We often tend to focus on the joy of the resurrection on Easter Sunday but all the gospels also mention fear, anxiety and distress on this day. Nothing is simple.   Matthew is the only one of the gospel writers to speak of an earthquake in connection the resurrection. In this brief resurrection story we have the earth shaking and the guards shaking and then fainting. But this is not the first time in Matthew’s story we find mention of quaking and shaking. When Jesus entered the city on palm Sunday the whole city of Jerusalem was shaken up, disturbed, in turmoil.   Right back in the beginning of Matthew we find that image of things being shaken up, disturbe...