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Jeremiah 7

from Return Return by David Bowden Poetry

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Jeremiah 7

Hear the word of the Lord all you citizens of the sitting lineage.
Listen all you Christians of the fitting-in traditions.
For the Lord has spoken.
Open your ears my heathens!

Pay Attention
to the condition
of your religion
that has taken position
over your mission
as my children

Your buildings are rebuilding a nation of accepted sedation
sedimentary demonstrations of comfortable admiration
a civilization of neglected realizations
neglecting to realize that all your worship’s comprising
is the disgusting disguising of your commitment’s demising
I brought you out of sin with the blood on my son’s skin
Again and again you sought him to restore ya
But your likeness is like that of Sodom and Gomorrah

I have had my fill of your songs
I long for your hearts
I find no thrill in belonging
to the screen art
backlighting your hymns
My ears rise to the brim with promises
But I want your body’s sacrifices
My eyes are blind with churches
all the same, no revolutionary versions
Your Sundays are a burden
You hide behind the curtain
of worship and feel certain
that your prayers, songs, and sermons
will be heard
that maybe I preferred
to be given your words instead of your person
but your blurred worship is persistent

Oh my Christians!
When did Christ become a figurehead instead of a commission
When did my son become flatbread instead of a mission
When did his blood become imbedded in dead prayers instead of spreading you into submission
When did his cross become something printed on thread instead of imprinted on your vision
Your missing the point if
attending, seating, listening, and repeating
is the joint efforts of your
effortless anointing
I don’t want to disappoint
all those who thought
getting baptized and being churched
would comprise the proper work to prove your worth
but I have searched the earth
and when you’re not hiding in your Sunday shirt
or your Wednesday skirt
you look the same as every unconverted
person who flirts with the comforts of selfishness and inverted shame
It does not matter if you claim my name
because the fact of the matter is that you all look the same
The pagans the Christians
The tainted the sinless
The saved and the sinners
The saints and imprisoned

You are in prison
my children
Your comfort is your bars
Your traditions your cells
Your boredom is your punishment
and your minds are your jails
Don’t you remember?
I freed you with nails
broke the bars, opened the cells
But you just sit in your chains
spend your days in an open grave
I raised you from death but you live the same way


Oh my unfaithful bride!
I have loved you before time began to wind
Behind your creation are lifetimes of preparation
I created you to be mine
From the Egyptians I saved you
I kept you in mind
From your hypocrisy I braved your
commitment’s decline
I traded the life of the divine
for the strife of a slave
I stayed by your side when you punctured mine
Sent me to the grave
I forgave you and your kind
Generation after generation generating the same replays
And today you
deny me still
Your lips lie with what they say
your tongue deceives with great skill
You fill pews to prove what your life fails to
Do something more than sit still
You kill me again
when you refuse to begin
living as I did
when I spent
my life with you

There will be no redemption for you
if you don’t do as I implore you

But don’t doubt that I adore you
Our reunion is overdue
I long to restore you
Create something more for you
Relate to your core
and not just your core values
For you are more valuable to me than doctrines, statements, or creeds
Your faith in me means more than
verses or beliefs
attendance or deeds
whether you fail or succeed
I will speed to your every need
Just please
Stop all the pretending
Stop using me for salvation and
and on it start depending
Stop lending me an hour a week
and hourlessly when your weak
start spending time on your knees
Take my power into the streets
Heal and nourish the least
Bless every enemy
and know
that as long as you are loving them and loving me
There is nothing else I could ever seek

Hear the word of the Lord all you citizens of the sitting lineage.
Listen all you Christians of the fitting-in traditions.
For the Lord has spoken.
Open your ears. For this message hasn’t been spoken for years.
And if you miss it when it’s this clear
And let it just disappear
What will be your hope when you’ve learned God’s word was sincere?

credits

from Return Return, released April 11, 2011

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David Bowden Poetry Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

David Bowden started writing his first poems at 19 after an encounter with God on a road trip to Chicago. Since then he has been using spoken word poetry to exalt the Bridegroom and beautify the bride. David currently pastors a house church under and within Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City, where he lives with his beautiful wife Meagan and cat Dexter. ... more

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