Matthew four
Harvey S. Mozolak

curing every disease
and every sickness
among the people
the gospel signs
the prescription
take this One for eternity
curing every…
even well… you know…
certain things
small or swollen
gums and scalp
and can you cover lower places?
and Lord
would you look at my big toe
too and how swollen it is
these rotten sandals
sure we know leprosy
and bleeding that will not stop
dropsy whatever that is
blindness and paralysis
but cured by God
salted to last
that’s good news for…
ears that cannot hear
and hearts clogged with hate

Matthew 4. 12-23

sursum corda
Harvey S. Mozolak

her thoughts at once fearful
yet surprised
Mary reached into his arms
and marveled that her Joseph
was not dead
old but lively in this moment
as they dried the wet infant
of heaven’s dew sprung
from the virgin well
he laughed
the beams of the carpenter’s arms
like the limbs of an unshaved oak
held the boy high
unlike that bearer who carried holiness
and touched to catch the falling
ark of promise in a stumble
he cried and died
her hands and Joseph’s ached
only with love to lift
the  baby from the feed box
and hold God squirming among them
the covenant
begging to be touched and kissed
that he might share joy divine
and his Father’s forgiveness
for the Fall

and for those who want a XPmass Proclamation of more traditional sort but yet newly written, I composed the following verse a few years ago and used it in both my last parish in Pennsylvania and my recent interim parish here in North Carolina:

Christmas Proclamation
Harvey S. Mozolak

long many long years ago
generations multiplied by a multitude
ages before eons and epochs
God saw this evening and day
and it was good
as the child lay holy in the hay
before light opened its eyes
to see the sea and seething stone
mound and cool as hills cast in mountains
the fish flash and birds in flight
man astonished at woman
lifted from his side beneath his skin
here a child from no man
but of a virgin’s belly boldly born
waves and waves ago
deep through the tides of time
well after the last lashing splashes
of the flood deluged the world
he washed ashore our flesh
a band of blessing light
new covenanted bent and bowed below
the reign of God
divine dew on the cold rock of the fodder feeder
centuries beyond the centenarians
Sarah and Abraham
who seeded the stars and plowed the sands
with myriad grandchildren’s feet
he came a shock to David’s stock
young maiden Mary of his tribe
too young and pure to know her womb a home
but God comes there by holy promise
to live and grow within and do without
where overwhelmed
drowning in captivity to sin
faltering like Pharaoh’s chariots floundering in the sea
as Moses-child to Egypt from his mother’s arms
he goes out to free his people
to save like Boaz his starving ancient mother Ruth
and rescue like the Judges
Gideon Deborah Barak Sampson
and Samuel last and also priest
anointing David boy of little Bethlehem
king prophesied so small
unknown and insignificant
beside the royal Rome that Daniel saw
with richness and in fear
the power and  peace
this the pax
at the right time
conceived by the Holy Spirit
thus after nine months of darkness
tabernacled by Mary’s ribs
fed by the flow of blood
near her consenting heart
born dropped down
like dawn from heaven
this we proclaim
God stakes out his fatherly kingdom
among us with his Son
now even in this year this day and hour
of our annual solemn joyous celebration 
full-throated in gloria-alleluias

For those who are leaning ahead as everyone does into the December doings, a Christmas Proclamation inspired by the words of W.W.   For those who do not know, the Proclamation is sung on Christmas and traditionally recounts the salvic events by dates from the Old Testament to the birth of our Lord.  This one is a bit more contemporary than simply its words... it begins with the birth and jumps to Hodie (Today). 

Contemporary Christmas Proclamation
Harvey S. Mozolak

In the 2013th year,
less several as can be miscalculated under eternity,
in the roughly 1980th year after the certain death
and glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
he still comes to those who worship and adore
at manger, cross and the altar of his resurrection
where the proclamation is not fearfully announced
through archangelic presence
but by the sinful ordained
who tell of mercy laid low
and magnificence hidden
though without angelic choirs
the Gloria is only sung by weak human voices
embraced by organ, trumpet, string and drum
and where often more modest than ought to be
gifts are bought in procession
as plates and cups for the faithful
receiving incarnate Body and Blood
and departing used to offer food and filling
peace for those in need
in the name of the frail Infant and mighty Savior
in this year, day, hour, now.

Christ the King
Harvey S. Mozolak

enthroned in November’s swirling winds
his train moving among the shifting leaves
beneath ladders laid against cold peaked roofs
reaching up in defiance of December’s freezing death
to place long lines of light readied for his coming
in the dark from the woman’s cave
to be enslaved by blood and breath

regnum
Harvey S. Mozolak

when we came to the place
called “dead-head”
we hung “Yahweh-saves”
among the lost who had stolen
his crime forgiveness and restoration
“king of the captured”
shouted the soldiers in mockery
his head thorn-studded in cruel crown
full of remembering
those who deserve only his rule
mercy’s sentence
"you will be with me"
among the living
growing and flowering forever

Christ the King
Luke 23:33–43

edging
Harvey S. Mozolak
 
at the edge
there are stones
we walk along them
beautiful rocks
set for a distant view
with drawings of hope
words of loving remembrance
many sprayed with flowers’ burst
in today’s color
we do not awake in a grave
or commute to cemeteries
only funeral staff work in graveyards
the young are not schooled
with desks among rows of tombstones
but each day is lived along the edge
near the end of time
and the beginning of eternal endurance
where souls are counted
as radiance around the Triune Head
whose words and wisdom
cannot be withstood or contradicted
but heard as invitation
verging beyond as entrance
the universe upheld
growing in a woman’s belly
king to subject among the sticks
November to December’s
raw edge of earth defined by heaven
fringed in straw

Lectionary 33Luke 21:5–19