Poetry

A Meditation in Doggerel

by Douglas Cedarleaf

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” (I John 5:3)

I wonder as I ponder on love and on law
How each mighty concept has tended to draw
The ardor of Christians who loudly declare
That one with the other just never may share.

Before our dear Saviour did come for to bless
Our poor fallen race with his new righteousness
Old Moses on Sinai received graven laws
And brought them to people who hardly cared straws

But swore they would keep them til death came to call;
Still parents and children paid no heed at all.
They made golden calves and they sculpted their Baals
And lusted for Egypt with many loud wails.

And even tho’ Yahweh pushed back the Red Sea,
They all soon forgot that he called them to be —
“The light for the Gentiles.” It flickered and spit.
One hardly expected to see God in it.

And this is what happens when law stands alone,
Majestic and mighty it will not condone
A slip from the path of high virtue decreed
Yet powerless seems it t' accomplish the deed.

The prophet, that weeper in Israel, declared
That God in his mercy was always prepared
To write his commandments on hearts that were sore,
Too burdened with failure to try any more.

The rabbi of Tarsus convinced that God's law
Since the day of his birth he had kept without flaw,
On the road to Damascus was blinded by light;
Through a faithful disciple God gave back his sight.

From that fateful day he could see himself plain.
His zeal for the law had not blotted the stain
Of the charge of a guilty and damned sinful man.
To the Grace and the Love of his Saviour, he ran.

The Bishop of Hippo who followed his lead
Did roundly declare if one loved God with speed,
To do as one pleased it was not out of bounds
Tho’ it’s easy to fool oneself here — think of pounds!

For a genius like Augie or a saint like Dear Paul
The high flaming heart makes its own light to call
The wandering mind and the asinine flesh
To heights of achievement we hardly can guess.

Tho’ holy and just, yes, and good is God’s law,
No arms and no heart does it have for to draw
The one who has broken its solemn decrees,
But it’s Christ, God’s own son, on his cross who helps these!

So let us thank God for that good decalog.
Its precepts are precious, its rules without fog.
But God's Holy Spirit in one’s heart must move
To make it a witness to power and to love.

It may be, however, that stumblers like us,
Given to greed and sometimes to lust,
Must listen to John who until his death
Bound love and the law in one single breath.