This is a reworking of the previous sonnet which I felt had too much going on in it. I continually try to say everything I can rather than limit to the focus of what is needed. Alas. The sonnet’s form, which is Spenserian is not the Shakespearean I’m more comfortable with, is also a bit more of a challenge for me. Here’s to mulligans.

At any rate, I think it’s a bit more focused though sadly, doesn’t capture all that I can imagine is going on in the passage from Luke 6:1-5 which reads,

On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

An easy Sabbath walk in the lengthened light
Of evening wading through a sea of wheat,
Which swelled with wind, waving, rolling in flight
Across the field where we gather to meet.
We’ve retreated from the village’s heat
With One who left us hungering for more
Our bellies talk, we pluck the grain and eat
Rub the kernels free on this threshing floor.

We feed on His words, whose grain fills, restores;
Gives life to the hungry, strengthens, and stays
Welcomes the outcast, throws open the door
But offends the proud, sends the full away.
But to us, Sit down, says, You are the blessed
Who’ve hungered and thirsted, sought out my rest.

© Randy Edwards 2017.
This sonnet is for Christ’s church. If it is helpful, please feel free to copy or reprint in church bulletins, read aloud, or repost. I only ask that an attribution be cited to myself (Randall Edwards) and this blog (backwardmutters.com). Thanks
Artwork: Gustav Dore