Dear Church Family and Friends,
The great 12th century Sufi poet Hafiz once wrote a poem entitled “Only Pucker at Certain Moments?” The poem reads:
Does God only pucker at certain moments of one’s life?
No way!
He is the wildest of us lovers.
With humor and brevity, Hafiz delightfully captures the unconditional love of God in the image of continually puckered lips. I can think of no better way to introduce the special worship service we have planned for Valentine’s Day on February 14th. If God’s lips are often puckered, shouldn’t we sometimes pucker our lips in return? I mean this metaphorically of course. I have no desire to look out from the pulpit to witness a sea of puckered faces stretching toward the skylight. Rather, what I have in mind is a worship service full of love poems to God.
This will be a participatory worship service. We want members to submit and read their love poems. While original works would be wonderful, you do not necessarily have to submit a poem that you yourself wrote. You can submit a poem written by someone else, a famous poet perhaps. If you are too shy to read a poem, still submit it. We can find readers. (Please let me know if you would like to be one of these readers.)
So get ready and pucker your lips for God!
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks
PS: Poems can be either put in my office mailbox or emailed to be at brooks@vanucc.org. Please keep poems short: nothing longer than two-thirds of page.
