“[Jesus said,] ‘For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”‘” – Luke 14:28-30

What are we, Jesus, except people
(men, women, beyond the binary)
who have begun to build
and have not finished?

The Church may be your body, Jesus
(an image which you did not create),
but if it is, it’s a growing body.
Growing, perhaps, and barely born.

It’s a tower rising slowly.
Is there a course of stones
or even less above the ring
of the foundation?

How many Christ disciples
over the millennia
have hesitated, dropped their stones
before they’ve placed them on the wall?

It is no wonder that
so many ask derisively,
“Do you still hope to finish
this construction, grow this Church?

“The walls are fragile, trembling
in a gentle breeze. They waver
from their courses so that any stone
which rests upon them will inevitably fall.”

Well, Jesus, here’s my stone.
I’m not sure it’s well shaped.
I’m not sure it’s well placed.
But here it is. Long may it stand.

A poem/prayer based on Luke 14:25-33, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year C, Proper 18 (23).

The image is captioned “Ruined Foundation at Jericho – the Jordan” in Through Bible Lands : notes of travel in Egypt, the desert, and Palestine (1878) by Schaff, Philip, 1819-1893 – https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14578232189/ Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/throughbibleland00scha/throughbibleland00scha#page/n350/mode/1up, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44116530.