“[Jesus prayed,] I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” – John 17:15-16

Between the orbit paths of Jupiter and Mars,
a horde of planetoids and rocks and dust
surrounds the Sun, tracing their ellipses
in a dance with gravity.

One speculation to explain these asteroids
is that, long, long ago, a planet strayed too close
to Jupiter’s titanic tides of gravity, and broke
into these countless rocky shards.

When worlds almost collide, sometimes
a world breaks up, and leaves the other
without scar or trace of impact made.
One shatters. One remains.

Your followers, dear Jesus, live in both a world
of harshness, folly, lies, and fraud, and in
the world of God’s creative grace.
They seek to speak the one unto the other.

Yet when these worlds collide, or when
they pass too close, which one will break,
and which endure? Which one reflect
the sun, which one be hard to see?

Oh, let it be the world of God’s creative love!
Oh, let it be the world of Christ’s redeeming love!
Oh, let it be the world of grace and truth!
Oh, let it be! Oh, let it be!

A poem/prayer based on John 17:6-19, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year B, Seventh Sunday of Easter.

Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech – https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/asteroid/20180723/main-animation-16.gif, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71080744.