Risen, in the Present Tense - Poem by Raymond A. Foss

Words, of our faith, the mystery of faith
bound into our lives, our hearts,
heard so many times,
“Christ has died,
Christ is risen,
Christ will come again”
A statement of loss and
a covenant of a future yet to come
bound the wondrous middle,
the affirmation of something
more than mere reporting
We are not told that Christ rose,
as the ancient creed holds,
No, this is a bold statement of life
of continuing resurrection, living today
of our promise,
in the scripture of living joint heirs,
as fellow disciples,
as living brothers and sisters with Christ
in the present moment. He is alive! He IS risen
living now, as surely as the moments
he walked this earth,
in human form. He is living now,
and he is our brother,
not our long, far off distant relative.
He is our living brother, now
We are his companions, his disciples
Just as much as the first twelve,
who shared the bread, the wine
We are his contemporaries, their peers
a big, rambunctious living family
Heirs in the first degree
Feeling the presently risen Christ
walking that Emmaus Road,
the journey of our lives
after the rising on Easter
Living with a Christ in the present tense
HE IS RISEN; Christ IS risen indeed!

March 15, 2008
The "mystery of faith" from the Great Thanksgiving
versus the Apostle's Creed