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So, it looks like most of you didn't get this post, and a commentary might help. I wrote this in reaction to the violence and unrest in many parts of the world, and the Olympic travesty. I will paste the commentary and slightly changed poem below.

In a meditation last night words from Isaiah came, in connection with all the foment in the world today. Israel and Palestine, Russia and the Ukraine, England, Italy, and France, especially France.

The scriptural references are from verses in Isaiah that foretell the gift of a savior, using the metaphor of dew. "Drop down dew ye heavens from above" and are part of the Church's celebration of Advent. Last Sunday's Old Testament reading and Psalm talk about God's promise of bread from heaven, which came like dew in the morning, then dried into manna. These in turn foreshadow Jesus, the true bread from heaven in the Gospel of John, chapter 6.

Dew can symbolize the waters of repentance and new life at baptism. In Isaiah it foreshadows the promise of the nativity where Jesus emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men (Philippians 2), but also manna from heaven, the bread of life.

That which was mocked was not defiled, for God cannot be defiled. Those who mock defile themselves. For that reason we need to plead for mercy, dropping like a gentle rain upon the earth beneath.

An ancient voice speaks:

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above

and let clouds rain down the just.

Let the earth be opened

and bud forth a savior

and let justice spring up.

We are parched, without

water, I cry,

we have no water, no food

for ourselves or our sisters

desolation, destruction

in the holy places

wrought by our own hands

spread abroad as lies,

as hate and violence

and shame

The thing despised by them,

the eucharist,

still drops as dew

upon the earth

as manna

in the desert

as bread from heaven.

Cry!

What shall I cry?

all flesh is grass

we wither and die

for lack of dew.

We need

wise forgiving bread

and water poured

from above

the pure anointing

running down our cheeks

in gladness

to cleanse us

to repair our crumbling walls

Do not let your saints labor in vain

O Lord,

Rouse your power and come.

**The desert is the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the Polish singers are for the Ukraine, and the mockers of the Eucharist you can guess.

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