Poetry of the Cross

 

Now that we’re done with February and moving through March, it’s time to announce the cooperative blog project I’m gearing up to host this month. Since this is the time when Christians mark Christ’s death and resurrection, I’m going to make the week right before Easter, March 16-22, the week for Poetry of the Cross. I plan to post a poem about Christ’s death every single day and I hope you’ll join me by posting a cross-centered poem on your own blog for as many days as you can. Then on Resurrection Sunday, the 23rd of March, I’m planning the grand finale: a collection of Poetry of the Resurrection.

As always with these cooperative projects, your job is to post and then send me your link by clicking on Contact under my photo in the sidebar. I’ll link to your posted poem of the cross in the next collection of cross poems. I’m hoping that some of the poets among us will post original work. If you’re not a poet and you don’t know where to find poems about the cross, your hymnal is a good place to start.

 

Let’s saturate our corner of the blogworld with remembrance and celebration of the hope of the gospel in the historical work of Jesus Christ. 

Sunday's Hymn: The Work of Christ

As we move toward Easter, the Sunday’s hymns will teach us something about the work of Christ on the cross. This week the hymn is one from Isaac Watts. Among other things, this hymn teaches me something about my own naturally wormish condition, which ought to make me all the more grateful for God’s intervention on my behalf, sending his Son to stand in my place bearing “wrath divine” for “crimes that I had done”.

Alas! And Did My Saviour Bleed?

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do. (Listen.)

More on the natural human condition:

• Why I Love the Doctrine of Total Depravity
  

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Sweet Hour of Prayer at joythruChrist (Jen has good reason for choosing this one today.)
  
• The Fourth Sunday in Lent at Magic Statistics
• Made to Worship at The Happy Wonderer
• O Bless Our God with One Accord at Hiraeth
  
• I Know That My Redeemer Lives at Seasoning of the Heart
• Master, Speak! Thy Servant Heareth at Whatever Things…
• O Sacred Head, Now Wounded at Field Stone Cottage
• Saved By Grace at Fish and Cans
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo Meets A Meme

The 8AM Saturday grocery shopper has tagged me for a meme. The instructions are to list six unimportant things about me: facts, quirks, or habits. And I’ve thrown in a gratuituous old photo, too.

1. I still don’t really know right from left. I don’t know whether to chalk it up to being left handed or having some strange learning disability or both. If I think for a second (Which hand do I use to write? Okay, then this is a right turn), I’ll get it right, but left/right directions have never been automatic for me. I am, however, better than most on north, south, east, or west.
   
2. I was the kid with the wrong hand over her heart during the pledge of allegiance. (See explanation above.)
   
3. I have owned at least 10 11 cats in my life, one at a time. That doesn’t speak well for my ability to keep cats alive. (The kitten in the photo belonged to me in 1976. Her name was Kitty McFitty. She is no longer with us.)
   
4. I am allergic to peanuts, corn, pine pollen and more. I wish I knew what the more is.
5. When I need an important paper or document, I’m never sure I’ll be able to find it. I’ve struggled with this for my whole life, so much that when I need to come up with a receipt or proof of citizenship or insurance or whatever, I automatically feel a little panic.  
6. My favorite colour is yellow. I wear a lot of pink and blue.