For Deliverance from a Fever

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: Psalm 124 CLASSIC POEM: For Deliverance From a Fever Anne Bradstreet When sorrows had begirt me round, And pains within and out, When in my flesh no part was found, Then didst Thou rid me out. My burning flesh in sweat did boil, My aching head did break, From side to side for ease I toil, So faint I could not speak. Beclouded was my soul with fear Of Thy displeasure sore, Nor could I read my evidence Which oft I read before. “Hide not Thy face from me!” I cried, “From burnings keep my soul. Thou know’st my heart, and hast me tried; I on Thy mercies roll.” “O heal my soul,” Thou know’st I said, “Though flesh consume to nought, What though in dust it shall be laid, To glory t’ shall be brought.” Thou heard’st, Thy rod Thou didst remove And spared my body frail Thou show’st to me Thy tender love, My heart no more might quail. O, praises to my mighty God, Praise to my Lord, I say, Who hath redeemed my soul from pit, Praises to Him for aye. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: Changing Places in the Fire Li-Young Lee SNIPPET: … We see by the light of who we are. Look at us: you inside me inside you. We’ve lived inside each other from the beginning. And from before beginning. Before the world was ever found. Before the world was found, I say, I dwelled inside you, and you breathed all through me, in my body and its happiness, in my body and its loneliness. After I found the world, I had to go looking for you. Ever since the world, I only lose you and find you. Lose you. And find you. The body of the beloved is the lover’s true homeland, she says. … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]