Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Sermon in Rhyme

What you will find below is a poorly written retelling of Paul's Acts 13 sermon in rhyme. I did it to force me to think through what was said. I found the exercise both difficult and helpful:

Jacob's sons, hear me and you who love YHWH
Listen to these words and hear what I say.
He chose Abraham's sons to be his faves,
Made them prosper even while Egypt's slaves.
He rescued them from Pharaoh's tight fist,
Restrained himself from destroying them in the wilderness.
He cleared out seven nations to give them space
In just the first 450 years, this all took place.

Then God gave them judges like Samuel to reign.
They wanted a king, he gave Saul the Insane.
He removed him and gave David the throne,
Who loved God's will more than his own.

And God has sent from David's royal line
The promised Savior, Jesus Divine.
Elijah has come, as Malachi foretold,
He was John the Baptist. His message, bold.
"Repent!" He cried preparing these places
Knowing he was not even fit to tie His laces.

We, lovers of YHWH are the ones entrusted with this Saving Word.
Jerusalem rejected him despite fulfilling of all they'd heard.
They pressured Pilot to declare death his doom.
Fulfilling prophecy, they carried his corpse from cross to tomb.
He spent much time with his followers, he, no longer dead.
Teaching them to tell Abe's sons all he'd done and said.

What he promised to the Fathers to their children has come true!
Good news, as it states back in Psalm 2:
"My Son" That's what Jesus by YHWH was called,
The unconquerable King on Zion Installed.*
He was raised eternal to the throne of David.
Messiah's body saved from the worms of the grave who crave it.
David, though faithful, died, his body buried and is now but bone,
But not Jesus, his body whole, sits on David's throne














And the Living One is now declared the Forgiving One.
Trusting Him produces a righteousness the Law couldn't have done.
Good News! But from the prophets take heed:
Though told, you dont believe I've done this wondrous deed.
You all scoff in pride. Where is your wonder?
The fool who misses Jesus will die in his blunder.

*I inserted some the ideas found in Psalm 2 that are not directly quoted, because I feel Paul was alluding to the whole thing.

2 comments:

Sam said...

I thought it was quite good. I also think exercises such as this are good for us because they, as you said, make us read the texts closely, look at background, etc.

Anonymous said...

All I needed was a backbeat. Maybe you could do that and record it on Mp3 for us. :-)