The Day They Call Good

At this hour He hangs.

The blind He healed no longer see; the deaf He healed no longer understand. Those who stood close are now only brave enough to watch -- from a safe distance.

He cries out; they bring Him vinegar and gall to drink. A small Roman market opens at the foot of a dripping cross: guards place bids on His garments, even the hem of His garment.

Nothing can stop His bleeding issue.

No one knows, perhaps not (yet) even He, that everyone hangs in Him, that His exsanguination is theirs; is their only hope. There is mockery, scoffing, cursing;

the unknowing living spit sarcasm into His wounds,

He, the only knowing dying,

turns vitriol to wine
He has finished His cup
and it pours out
pooling beneath so many
nervous feet

one thief finds paradise in His great poverty
another finds nothing worth taking
not even this broken bit of bread

a sign maker admires his work,
dumb to the irony of his irony
a crown weaver picks a thorn from his thumb
thinking about furlough

a virgin finds her son finding her Son
and a son finds the mother who gave birth to
a dying God

a rabbi weeps at the Law's last breath
a guard feels the weakness of the sword,
the strength of surrender

a spear pierces the side of heaven
and hell spills out

there is no safe distance


©2007 Bill Gnade. All Rights Reserved.

Cover Your Ears! Brit Hume, Ann Coulter, And The Cross

Fox News contributor Brit Hume recently said something controversial -- on TV! -- about the nature of Christianity. Perhaps you heard his blasphemous remarks; perhaps you heard his great insult.

And perhaps you didn't.

Well, at least one person did -- Ann Coulter. I know, I know, she's a firebrand. She's a bombshell bomb thrower; a crass ideologue; a political pit bull. But set the caricatures of her aside for a moment and read what she has to say about Christianity, about it being the best deal on the planet. Is she right? Has Ann Coulter presented the gospel in a way that does justice to the "good news"?

You tell me. I'd love to hear what you think of "If You Can Find A Better Deal, Take It!" And I'd like to hear what you think of Mr. Hume's remarks, too. (Coulter quotes him at length.)

Peace.