you were named Jesus,
circumcised
before their purification
Mary and
Joseph
they followed all the Law of Moses
had done all that was required by the Law of the Lord
the Spirit moved Simeon, sent Anna
to you
cradled in their arms,
you blessed them, others in the temple courts
this, your first time in the temple
a home
Samuel listens. Here is God’s response,
1 Samuel 3 “The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
in a time of rare visions and rare words, God comes and stands by those who are listening. God stood in the Temple; talked to Samuel; God calls without absolute purpose and love. God stands with me when I listen.
I listen Lord.
Temple thoughts
Every night you
Walked up to our home
from Hampstead, High Street, up
the cobbled streets up
past the Mary Poppins chimneys
to
East Heath Road, & our home
#10 Lady Well Court, a pink house, till
knees and body fail then
the 268 bus carried us two
Jesus walked
every night after teaching
you were in your temple
you, dead with the tiredness
of a NYC South Bronx teacher
in June (perhaps they are spent
as you had to be?) spent as a
Widow’s mite
and then rich
Pharisees, teachers of the law,
Sadducees, disciples,
questions, empty hearts,
eyes and ears
people stealing and hoarding
all trying to fill
themselves
You walked up
The Mount of Olives
every night
still a steep steep climb
did you sing? Listen to the breeze? Look only at
your feet, your hands?
when we walked by your
steps
Priscilla held the wall and the handrail steep but then we climbed down
driven up by a Palestine cab driver who when ‘I said take me where you would go in Jerusalem’
Drove to top of the Mount
He said ‘I’ll see you at the bottom in two hours.’
Two hours’-pause-
‘Walk.’
we walked at the day’s break.
Two hours to reach the bottom, the Garden of Gethsemane. A throng of peoples; a garden of olive trees; fence around. We walked, stood, cried silent tears.
You couldn’t walk up the night before you passed’ …he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, ‘he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
They slept. You sweated blood.
We had climbed down your Mount the dawn of our first Jerusalem day.
Our driver was there.
You had one more cross to climb; but
Not that night.
but You had climbed up after, as day light fades
at the end of your days teaching at the temple
I can, could, see and feel, you resting on your way
the sun would have been setting
the temple and Jewish hill top
graves are white facing a hot sun.
these graves face the temple so that they would rise first when the Messiah comes
they were looking the wrong way.
drafts 