Covenant Weekly - Season 3 - Episode 4

To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly

Here on the first Tuesday of the month, I’d like to offer you something written by someone in the broader church world. Sometimes I’ll offer something ancient. Sometimes it will be contemporary. It may be a brief essay, a prayer, or a poem. Today, I’d like to share a poem by Malcolm Guite. Malcolm is a poet, songwriter, academic, and Anglican priest. He is a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien who also inspired Malcolm’s own love for pipe smoking. I had the privilege of hearing Malcolm speak at an event in October and talking with him while we sat near the beach on an unseasonably hot fall day in Holland, Michigan. The poem we’ll hear today, in the Covenant Weekly for February 6, 2024, is a sonnet entitled The Call of The Disciples.

He calls us all to step aboard his ship,
Take the adventure on this morning’s wing,
Raise sail with him, launch out into the deep,
Whatever storms or floods are threatening.
If faith gives way to doubt, or love to fear, 
Then, as on Galilee, we’ll rouse the Lord,
For he is always with us and will hear,
And make our peace with his creative Word,
Who has made us, loved us, formed us and has set
All his beloved lovers in an ark;
Borne upwards by his Spirit, we will float
Above the rising waves, the falling dark,
As fellow pilgrims, driven towards that haven,
Where all will be redeemed, fulfilled, forgiven.

From Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year by Malcolm Guite.