John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

He put on a panto for Pilate

A new poem, the centrepiece of my Palm Sunday talk this year:

 

He put on a panto for Pilate

that day at Jerusalem’s gate:

Jesus the jester

erroneously dressed as a daft king

on a Donkey of State.

 

He made an old ass out of Pilate

by lampooning his arrogant ways

with a braying old mule as his chariot

and a crowd of the town's waifs

and strays.

 

He went on to screw up the Temple:

chased its trading floor vendors away

with a show of derision,

and released every pigeon

like a comic magician at play.

 

When Judas protested the perfume

that Mary had splashed on his feet

Jesus the smiler

said just to beguile her

that what she had done was quite neat.

 

He caricatured the self-righteous

and made a big farce of their rules

by splitting his sides at their smug pious pride

thus showing those priests up as fools.

 

He made quite a twit out of Judas

For placing his bets the wrong way

On a guerrilla-fighter who’d take on the might of the Romans:

Saying, ‘No, put your weapons away’.

 

He’s a barrel of laughs at a party:

with the lovely red wine flowing free

he said, ‘This is my blood,

yes, honest to God,

drink up and remember me’.

 

Like a miming old harlequin artist

in the courts of the Chief Priest and King

he spoke not a word:

which rendered absurd

each concocted charge that they’d bring.

 

With a nod and a wink at poor Peter

Jesus walked out to offend

every humourless bloke

with the ultimate joke

that death really isn’t the end.

This poem is the centrepiece of my Palm Sunday talk. Read it in full here.

There will be a day of resurrection

John’s Notes: Clapham Village Newsletter, April 2021; and my Easter Day reflection

I saw a vision: 

it was last Thursday at eleven o'clock in the morning. 

I was standing at the top of Ingleborough, above the farms and villages and towns

stretching out to Morecambe Bay

and the crisp, blue springtime sky broke open over my head 

and the Spirit of God breathed on my eyes and my eyes were opened: 

I saw a new country, a holy country, coming down out of heaven 

shining like a rare jewel, sparkling like clear water in the eye of the sun; 

and all the sickness was gone from the country 

and people moved in its lanes and streets 

and people hugged as they met there

and sang in their churches, pubs and homes. 

I saw the Ribble running with the water of life, 

as bright as crystal, as clear as glass, 

the children of Settle swimming in it.

And the Spirit showed me the tree of life 

growing in the heart of Bowland. 

I saw the teeming towns of Lancashire 

shining in the sun

where there were no more homeless people,

there were no women working the streets; 

there were no more junkies up the closes, 

Covid and cancer were things of the past; 

there were no more racist attacks, 

no more attacks on gay people, 

no more rapists, no more stabbings -  

because there was no more hate.

And I saw women walking safe at nights; 

and the men were full of passion and gentleness, 

and none of the children were ever abused 

because the people's sex was full of justice and joy. 

I saw closed signs on foodbanks

for there was work and just remuneration for all,

and at the gate of BAE Systems was a shining sculpture of a midwife nursing a newborn child

and lorries emerging, full of sophisticated new hospital equipment.

I saw an old woman throw back her head 

and laugh like a young girl 

and when the sky closed back her laughter rang in my head 

for days and days 

and would not go away. 

This is what I saw, looking across towards Heysham, 

looking up from the country of death 

and I knew then that there would be a day of resurrection 

and I believe that there will be a day of resurrection. 

 

Adapted from 'The Prophet's Speech', in ‘Words From The Late Late Service’, Glasgow 1993 (author uncredited, likely Doug Gay or Andy Thornton) - downloadable here: http://bit.ly/words-lls. See also my previous reimagining of this text for my home city: Liverpool Hope, 2003.