Sunday, September 30, 2007

Jesus, make it easy to follow you, please

During the nearly 22 years I served as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy I, like other chaplains, spent a great deal of energy and time preparing for field and chapel homilies and Eucharists, leading Bible studies and mini-retreats, as well as counseling young individuals and couples who had been referred by the command or simply sought out "the chaplain" for assistance.

When appropriate and without proselytizing, I tried hard to find ways to effectively communicate the grace-giving (and thus joyful), reconciling --and yes -- demanding truths of faith in God as lived out in Jesus. I now wish I had been open to using written verse, especially, solid contemporary poetry, in some of those efforts.

In recent years -- since retiring from chaplaincy and in my current role as one who helps recruit, develop and support Episcopal Church priests for chaplaincy service at federal prisons, VA hospitals, and U.S. military -- I have come to read and appreciate some contemporary poetry by writers such as Mary Oliver and Jude Simpson, in addition to the classical poets like T. S. Eliot and George Herbert.

Both Mary Oliver and Jude Simpson have helped me see that poetry can sometimes communicate the mystery of truth for our increasingly secular world by using an economy of penetrating words that mere prose simply cannot. I have come to believe that poetry for youth and young adults -- who almost all are attracted to song lyrics including rap and hip-hop -- just may be a mode of communicating truth that they will more readily hear and consider.

For instance, the young female poet Jude Simpson is truly amazing when it comes to writing poetry which both entertains and yet speaks with deep passion and insight. She is a British writer who is described on one web site as a "comic poet, entertainer and all-around lover of words."

The Church of England web site folks asked Jude to write "five 'funny' poems about Jesus" and to also document her creative process in an audio diary. (All five poems and the audio can be enjoyed at www.rejesus.co.uk/expressions/jude_simpson/index.html.
For yet more info on this gifted and humorous poet, you can also visit her own web page, www.judesimpson.co.uk/.)

When I read her poems recently, I found my heart and mind greatly engaged by some of her rhythmic, metaphoric word choices such as these lines in the poem "You won't find Jesus on Myspace":

Jesus doesn't have a Myspace page.
He hasn't composed a profile
which sums him up in fifty excruciatingly well-chosen words
making him sound like God's gift.

All of her five poems are humorous yet have a depth of truth that sort of sneaks up on you. For instance, in perhaps her best of the five Jesus poems -- "Not cut out for religion" -- she has some really penetrating lines, especially for those of us in the "first-world," Western culture with our addiction to getting lots and lots of things fast, if not easy. Simpson writes:

Give me bite-sized thoughts in a faith shape sorter,
No more spilt blood or living water,
just a pint-sized god who's a straight talker.
Make it easy to follow.

I want fruit-flavored shots of the Holy Spirit,
bite-sized, trite truths in Boyband lyrics
"love" and "above" -- yeah, that should fill it.
Make it easy to follow.

Then a few lines later she writes,

You say, "you are not my servant, now you are my friend".
You say, "I will be with you until the bitter end".
And I'm like, "why bother?" -- I wanted happiness on prescription.
Isn't that the whole point of getting religion?

Enough said.

Thanks be to God for poets like Jude Simpson who speak truth powerfully to youth and young adults -- and to us "foremerly young" folks too!