Take Thou Authority

This poem, written at the end of a deep, emotional, life-giving renewal leave–April 5–July 5, 2018, is an expression of three months of reflection on God’s call in my life.

Take Thou Authority

This morning
This day
Under a canopy of
Green summer leaves
Gently dancing in an unseen breeze
Under a canopy of blue
Chagall blue
Peace blue
Cloudless blue
Under a canopy of light
Freely given
With mercy
By the sun
And where the moon is still visible
Taking its time setting
Making certain that it is seen
By me
As if to offer assurance
That all shall be well
That all manner of things shall be well
As if to remind me to be not afraid
I hear your voice
Speaking the words from long ago
“Take thou authority.”

And the words
Mean more to me now
Than on that summer Sunday morning long ago

Take thou authority.

I say the words out loud
And for a brief second
A nano second
All is still
And silent
And holy

And the birds begin
Their song anew
As the words deepen in my heart
And I hear your voice again
Rushing to me from miles and miles away
Speaking to me again

Take thou authority

Take thou authority
To know who God created me to be
To cry sacred, healing tears for myself
For the world
To know my name
Even when I falter
Even when I fail
To be at peace
Even when I do not know
What comes next.

Take thou authority
To tell the stories
Of those across oceans of time
And those across timeless oceans
Who have known
And do know
How to trust
The holy
And the Holy
Living lives that are precarious
And deeply meaningful
For their moments and the moments yet to be.

Take thou authority
To offer the sacraments of life
The purity of water
That names and claims us
That moves us from one place to another
Like the currents of the Rhine
Like the currents of the Hudson
Like the waves
Of the oceans teeming with life

And the bread and the wine
The body and the blood
The fields of wheat
The hillsides of vineyards
Stretching out as far as the eye can see
Sustaining life
Proclaiming loudly in the morning sunlight
Holy holy holy Lord
God of power and might
Heaven and earth are full
Of YOUR glory
Blessed is he
Blessed is she
Who comes in the name of the Lord.

Take thou authority.

In this day
In this age
And in the age to come

Take thou authority
When God’s call is clear
Or God’s call is becoming clear.
Or changing
Or refining
Or resting in holy silence

Take thou authority
To be not afraid
To trust that all will be well
To know that God is present
In the seen and the unseen
In the past
The present
The future
The eternal
In the love
That is with us in the womb
Through the days of life
In sacredness of death
And holds us through eternity.

For your voice
Speaking to me
Proclaiming for the church
Resounding for God
Those three words
Take thou authority
Spoken long ago
With the voice of assurance
Spoken this morning
In a voice of love
I am grateful
Truly.

 

For Bispo, WBG, my ordaining bishop and my spiritual father

Written by C. Alicia Randolph

July 7, 2018

© by Alicia Randolph Rapking