PreacherRhetorica
  • Home and to sermons
    • Year B frontispiece >
      • Proper 5B
      • Seventh of Easter
      • Sixth of Easter
      • Fifth of Easter
      • Fourth of Easter homily
      • Third of Easter
      • Second of Easter
      • Easter Day
      • Maundy Thursday
      • Palm Sunday
      • Lent 5
      • Next Before Lent
      • Presentation (Epiphany 4)
      • Third of Epiphany
      • Second of Epiphany
      • Epiphany (2)
      • Epiphany
      • Holy Innocents
      • Christmas
      • The Reign of Christ (Proper 29B)
      • Christ the King (Proper 29B)
      • Proper 28B (2nd Bf Advent)
      • 3rd Bf Advent (CofE)
      • Proper 27B
      • All Saints Sunday
      • Proper 26B
      • Proper 25B
      • Simon and Jude
      • Proper 24B
      • Proper 23B
      • Proper 22B
      • Proper 22B homily
      • Proper 21B
      • Proper 20B
      • Proper 19B
      • Proper 18B sermon
      • Proper 18B performance poem
      • Proper 17B
      • Proper 16B
      • Proper 15B
      • Proper 14B
      • Proper 13B
      • Proper 12B
      • Mary Magdalene homily
      • Proper 11B
      • Proper 10B
      • Proper 9B homily
      • Proper 8B
      • Birth of John the Baptist
      • Proper 7B homily
      • Proper 6B
      • Trinity Sunday
      • Pentecost
      • Lent 4 Mothering Sunday
      • Lent 3
      • Lent 2
      • Lent 1
      • 2nd Before Lent
      • 3rd Before Lent
      • 2nd of Christmas B homily
      • Christmas Day
      • Advent 4B
      • Advent 3B
      • Advent 2B
      • Advent 1B homily
      • Year A frontispiece >
        • Proper 28A (2 Bf Advent)
        • Proper 27A (3 Bf Advent)
        • Proper 26A (4 Bf Advent)
        • Proper 25A Last after Trinity
        • Proper 24A
        • Proper 23A
        • Proper 22A
        • Proper 21A
        • St Matthew
        • Proper 20A
        • Proper 19A
        • Proper 18A
        • Proper 17A
        • Proper 16A
        • Proper 15A
        • Proper 14A
        • Proper 13A
        • Proper 12A
        • Proper 11A
        • Proper 10A
        • Proper 9A
        • Proper 8A
        • Proper 7A
        • Trinity Sunday (Homily)
        • Pentecost
        • Seventh of Easter (Sunday after Ascension)
        • Sixth of Easter
        • Fifth of Easter
        • Fourth of Easter
        • Third of Easter
        • Second of Easter
        • Easter (Poem)
        • Maundy Thursday
        • Palm Sunday
        • Lent 5
        • Lent 4
        • Lent 3
        • Lent 2
        • Lent 1
        • Next Bf Lent (Epiphany last)
        • 2 Bf Lent (Proper 3)
        • Epiphany 7 (RCL)
        • Epiphany 6 (3 Bf Lent)
        • Epiphany 5 (4 Bf Lent)
        • Presentation of Christ
        • Epiphany 3
        • Epiphany 2
        • Baptism of Christ (Epiphany 1)
        • The Epiphany
        • Second Sunday of Christmas
        • First Sunday of Christmas
        • Christmas Day
        • Advent 4A
        • Advent 3A
        • Advent 2A
        • Advent 1A
        • Christ the King Yr A (2)
        • Christ the King Yr A
        • Remembrance Sunday
        • All Saints' Sunday
        • Harvest Homily
        • Harvest
        • Admission of Pastoral Workers
        • Saint Thomas homily
        • Corpus Christi
        • Trinity Sunday
        • Pentecost
        • Pentecost: another example
        • Year C frontispiece >
          • Christ the King (Next bf Advent)
          • Proper 28C (2nd bf Advent)
          • Proper 27C (3rd bf Advent)
          • Proper 26C (4th bf Advent)
          • Proper 25C (Last after Trinity)
          • Proper 24C
          • Proper 23C
          • Proper 22C
          • St Michael & All Angels (homily)
          • Proper 21C
          • Proper 20C
          • Proper 19C (story sermon)
          • Proper 18C
          • Proper 17C
          • Proper 16C
          • Proper 15C
          • Proper 14C
          • Proper 13C
          • Proper 12C
          • Proper 11C
          • Proper 10C
          • Proper 9C
          • Proper 8C
          • Proper 7C
          • Proper 6C performance poem
          • Proper 5C
          • Proper 4C
          • Trinity
          • Pentecost homily
          • Seventh of Easter
          • Ascension Day
          • Sixth of Easter
          • Fifth of Easter
          • Fourth of Easter
          • Third of Easter
          • Second of Easter
          • Easter homily
          • Easter (story sermon)
          • Maundy Thursday
          • Palm Sunday
          • Lent 5C
          • Mothering Sunday
          • Lent 4C homily
          • Lent 3C (story sermon)
          • Lent 2C
          • Lent 1C
          • Ash Wednesday homily
          • Next Bf Lent/Last of Epiphany
          • Epiphany 4 (RCL)
          • Second Before Lent
          • Presentation of Christ
          • Fourth of Epiphany
          • Third of Epiphany
          • Baptism of Christ
          • The Epiphany
          • First of Christmas homily
          • Christmas Day homily
          • Christmas Day
          • Advent 4C
          • Advent 3C
          • Advent 2C
          • Advent 1C
        • Non-lectionary sermons >
          • Plough Sunday
          • Advent and Christmas ideas
          • Christmas Day homily
          • A Christmas Tale
          • Remembrance 2013
          • Remembrance Sunday
          • Harvest homily 2
          • Harvest
          • Harvest homily
          • Harvest Water
          • New Pastoral Ministry
        • Ascension
  • Homiletics
    • A Definition of Preaching
    • Speaking locally
    • Notes from a masterclass
    • Design analysis 1
    • Design analysis 2
    • Encouraging feedback
    • Preaching in an amnesic society
    • The Aldi bag syndrome
    • Blog
  • Disciplecraft
  • Recommended
    • Preaching Fools
  • Second of Epiphany

Running, Looking, Standing.
Easter Day
Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18

This poem builds on the fact that John's account contains lots of references to ordinary bodily actions - standing, looking, running - as it recounts Mary's experience of meeting the bodily resurrected Jesus. Might these very bodily activities tell us something about how we meet Christ and how we are to live the resurrection life now?
The poem is meant to be read aloud. Hopefully necessary variations in pace and emphasis will be obvious. You are welcome to quote or amend as you see fit in your own circumstances.

Picture
Running, running,
always running.
Time is short,
waste it not.
Time is money,
spend it well.
Time is lost,
the gain all gone.
Time flies, it’s said,
human fear, human care.

Looking, looking,
always looking.
What fulfills?
Where is it found?
Answers faint, slim,
in questing’s search.
Love’s labour
lost in cruel lies.
Ambition strives
and dreads its loss.
Looking, looking,
always, looking.

Standing, standing,
always standing.
Lost in wonder?
Lost in gloom!
This queue closes,
this house full.
Only an onlooker
to another’s life.
On the byline,
longing to be seen.
Standing, standing
always standing.

Deathly, deathly
always deathly.
Power’s abuse,
hoping smashed.
Stone in place,
nothing shifts.
Blood is stilled
in clammy rigor.
It all ends
in death’s dark vale.
Deathly, deathly,
always deathly.

Tell me, tell me,
always tell me
truths I wish for,
but cannot hear.
Meetings promised;
glanced unreal.
Voices heard
yet souls are deaf.
Understand? Perhaps,
or wholly miss the point.
Tell me, tell me,
always tell me.

So stands Mary
at the cross’ foot
waiting. Waiting,
endlessly waiting
for her Lord’s
final scream.
Weeping witness
to the awful hour.
Mother Mary, Mary,
and Mary Magdalene,
three women stand
while others flee.

Deathly, deathly,
always deathly
Mary to the tomb
despairing comes.
What’s to do
but presence grieving?
Panic stricken
‘He’s not here.’
Running, running
always running,
Mary to the two,
breathless comes.

They go running, running,
Shoulder to shoulder
to the empty place.
Then outpaced
Standing, standing,
staring in,
where’s the thing
to change a mind,
change a heart?
Simon Peter gasping
goes on in.
Looking, looking,
always looking--
but not seeing.
Home they go.
Confused; bewildered.

So stands Mary
weeping, weeping,
but not seeing
angels there.
‘Where is my Lord?
I do not know,
I do not know.’
Standing, standing,
always standing,
onlooker no more.
Stand now,
stand up,
see him for who he is.
Hear a voice,
see a smile,
don’t hold on,
stand face to face.
Cling not forlorn,
no past re-worked,
no possession.
He is free,
—and so is she.

Running, running,
always running.
There is news.
There is wonder.
There is life anew
in you, in me.
Explain it not--
only witness
with conviction.

Tell me, tell me,
always tell me,
Mary tell me
what you know.
Tell it straight,
and tell it slant,
'til my heart in
your words trusting,
knows for sure
the Living Lord.

Looking, looking,
always looking
for the hope that
springs ever new.

Standing, standing,
always standing
for the truth that
won’t be broken.

Running, running,
always running,
eagerly sharing
love’s burgeoning.

Tell me, tell me,
Mary tell me,
the one who spoke
to you that day,
lived in you,
and lives in me.
‘I have seen the Lord’
and life blossoms;
what is deathly
will not hold sway.

Looking, standing,
running 
my life’s course,
glimpse eternity
in time spent.