Poems: How Do You Build A Cathedral?
How do you build a cathedral?
Stone by stone by stone
Where’s the reliquary?
Housing a martyr’s bones
Come on bended knee
Best form is cruciform
An altar and bishop’s chair
Sinners be warned
Reprobates beware
Heaven’s sublime holiness is here
Priest recites: Hoc est corpus meum
Let the worthy righteous come near
Earning the downstairs mausoleum
Flying buttress by flying buttress
Towers rise where transept meets nave
Chiseling the wonders of Gothic excess
Gargoyles and angels observe each age
Visit those little chapels along the walls
Reserved spaces for private religion
Like personal sacramental stalls
Minus the cutting covenant of circumcision
No sanctuary pews ever needed
The congregants are welcome to stand
Bibles too are essentially unheeded
Just listen to the mass as Pope commands
Statues abundant to venerate
Stations of the Cross for devotions too
Kneelers and rails that separate
Joseph, Madonna, even Veronica (who?)
The choir space for litanies to be chanted
A pulpit where God’s word might be met
Souls transplanted, enchanted, grace granted
Plus the little gift shop, lest we forget
How do you build a cathedral?
Ancient buildings for earnest historians
To the Roman Catholic pious, ultimately needful
Though weird to those damned Presbyterians
How do you build a church?
Mind by mind
Being kind
Heart by heart
Love’s best start
Hand by hand
We understand
Prayers intoned
Borrowed faith owned
Holy silence
Faith making sense
Scriptures read
Broken bread
Scriptures heard
Practical Word
Where compassion
Is never rationed
Sacraments celebrated
Theology debated
Meetings to attend
Strangers made friends
Crises to manage
Stopping the damage
PIF’s to adjudicate
Systems to navigate
More meetings to lead
Frustrations to heed
Churches to close
Hopes to transpose
Elders to educate
Commissioned pastors to graduate
Visits to be made
Comforting the afraid
Joys and griefs shared
Ministry dared
Going where they are
Healing those scars
Ears that listen
Our human condition
Counsel given
A people forgiven
Questions that teach
Mysteries within reach
Gifts of hospitality
Here the divine reality
Gift of meekness
Forbearing our weakness
Holding one’s tongue
Praises sung
Creating trust
Love that is just
As Bonhoeffer said
Where Jesus alone is head
How do you grow a church?
With stones of flesh
Incarnate success
Pastors that serve
Thanks deserved
Servants that care
With conviction and prayer
Showing the way
Day by day
Walking together
Christ our only measure
Thus we say it again
Amen and Amen
So, God speed you Steve Cureton
At times taxing, it’s been fun
Now this work is done
Something new begun
Christ’s glory is won
So says each and everyone