“But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.'” – Mark 10:24b-25

A camel, which is a beast with sense,
will cast a jaundiced eye upon a needle’s eye
if told that they’re to pass on through.
At most, a knobby hoof may paw the ground.

Yet I engage in exercise of needle-passing
almost every day, and have for one score years,
and ten, and six, endeavoring to tell
a story so it lifts a heart or redirects a mind.

A task for fools, I say, as those I teach
nod sagely in agreement with my words,
then go to do the opposite of what I’d said,
and what they’d then approved,

Because, you know, though there’s a better way,
the one we know is still the one we’ll do.
We thank you for the wisdom of your words
and hope the world one day works as you say.

If only it were only “they,” the ones to whom
I speak! For it is also “Me,” the one I seek
to govern by your guidance, Christ, the “I”
who also cannot seem to follow you.

I would despair, save that some seeds I never thought
would bloom have grown, have blossomed, borne
sweet fruit as marginalized people claim
their place and power where they once had none.

So take my challenge, camel. I will make
my painful way through this so-tiny eye,
and once we’re through, what visions might we see,
what glory celebrate, in God’s sweet possibility.

A poem/prayer based on Mark 10:17-31, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year B, Proper 23 (28).

The image is a Roman needle of a type found in first to fourth century contexts. All rights reserved, Philippa Walton, 2014-11-29 19:38:23 – https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/download/id/494882Catalog: https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/494882/recordtype/artefacts archive copy at the Wayback Machine Artefact: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/652383, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77020469.

This poem/prayer was written on the thirty-sixth anniversary of my ordination. I rather regret not having taken (that I can find) a photo of a camel.