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This resource relating to Isaiah 40:1-11 provides a poem by Thomas Traherne (1637-1674) highlighting wonder at the gifts of a city and a poem by Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) highlighting the unique nature of Jerusalem.
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Narrative Lectionary
Source:
Englewood Review
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*** Narrative Lectionary ***
Lectionary Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11
CLASSIC POEM:
The City
Thomas Traherne
The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold: the gates were at first the end of the world. The green trees when I saw them first through one of the gates transported and ravished me, their sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart to leap, and almost mad with ecstasy, they were such strange and wonderful things: The Men! O what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And young men glittering and sparkling Angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys and girls tumbling in the street, and playing, were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; But all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was manifest in the Light of the Day, and something infinite behind everything appeared which talked with my expectation and moved my desire. The city seemed to stand in Eden, or to be built in Heaven. The streets were mine, the temple was mine, the people were mine, their clothes and gold and silver were mine, as much as their sparkling eyes, fair skins and ruddy faces. The skies were mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the World was mine; and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it. I knew no churlish proprieties, nor bounds, nor divisions: but all proprieties and divisions were mine: all treasures and the possessors of them. So that with much ado I was corrupted, and made to learn the dirty devices of this world. Which now I unlearn, and become, as it were, a little child again that I may enter into the Kingdom of God.
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
Ecology of Jerusalem
Yehuda Amichai
SNIPPET:
The air over Jerusalem is saturated with prayers and dreams
like the air over cities with heavy industry.
It’s hard to breathe.
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]
Content Type:
Key Scriptures:
Isaiah 40:1-11
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Non English Resource:
Narrative lectionary week:
NL214 Isaiah of the Exile
Date:
Monday, December 4, 2023