Poetry Day 1: "Easter Hymn"

Introduction

This week, we are going to do something a little different while I visit my family.  This April doesn't just mark the Easter season.  It is also National Poetry Month.   Poetry is a beautiful art form that can give people a new and deeper perspective on well-known scriptures.  It is also created to be spoken.  Therefore, poetry is often best enjoyed when we actually listen to the words and pauses.

Instead of writing a devotion, this week, I am sharing a poetry reading to accompany our scriptures.  If you want to experience the full benefit of each poem, I recommend taking the following steps: 

1. Ready for yourself for the experience by entering into a state of stillness.  Block out excess noise and place your body in a comfortable, resting position.  You may want to light a candle or use some essential oils to calm yourself.  When you are physically comfortable, breathe deeply to help calm your mind.
2. Once your body and mind are relaxed, read the scripture slowly and carefully.  Try to savor its words and picture what is being described.  What do your five senses notice?  
3. Read the scripture a second time.  What words or phrases stand out to you?   What feelings or questions do you have?  Let these thoughts flow through your mind like water.
   
4. Click the video link to listen to a poem tied to that scripture.  Try to imagine what the poet describes.  What do your senses notice?  What thoughts or questions spring to mind?  You may want to listen to the poem twice.
   
5. Finally, go back and read the scripture a final time.  What do you notice now?  Has anything changed?
   
6. Offer a prayer to God based on the your thoughts on both the scripture and the poem.

As someone who has a deep love of poetry, I hope you find this process spiritually meaningful.  If it is not your cup of tea, don't worry.  The blog will return to its normal routine next week.  

Scripture

 1 Corinthians 15:3-26

³ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴ and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; ¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷ If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.²¹ For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; ²² for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. ²³ But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. ²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

 

Poem

"Easter Hymn" by A.E. Housman