To Consume or to Commune – by Alice Fox

Church doors open to our known.

We welcome you, say we,

Unpacking verses, stacking

Sentences of eloquence, building up

Us, the main paragraph of our people.

What then of them we call The?

The bruised, The captive,

The homeless, The addict,

There, on the margins –

There, do the faithful fear to tread?

Look to Jesus, Emmanuel,

Who stepped again and again towards pain,

Towards those broken down by life;

Saying come to my table, sit, eat,

Be here with me, be made whole.

Could our church be more like you,

Living water? Spilling out of the pews,

Out, into the cracks of those 

That call themselves broken – 

Lord, could we be light that fills them?

Not in our strength but yours. 

Not for our righteousness but yours.

For when the 99 were safe, you sent your son.

You left your greener pastures,

Brought home the one.