This Jolly Beggar

Don’t look at me
the woman said who rolled her eyes
at the old man’s head bent over the counter
while she waited behind just out of church,
in line and ready to be served.

Don’t look at me
the elder said who managed sales
to the seminarian needing a job in town
his hands too clean for wheelin’ and deceivin’
in the business of car dealerships.

Don’t look at me
the pastor said, and the mother, the father,
the guy who got caught with his hand in the jar,
“I’m just a sinner, no perfection here, just doing my best,
and you’re no better.”

Don’t look at me
the little girl said, who knew how it was done
from watching her betters, to believe just enough,
her tongue so glib with all the Bible verses she was sure
like them she’d get by.

When it all comes down
to sheep and goats, to wheat and tares,
how many will be saying to the Lord of all,
“Let the mountains fall upon us to cover and to hide:
just don’t look, oh God, at me!”

Luke 23:30-31
Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’
For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

James 1:21-27, 2: 18-26
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world….
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe–and shudder!
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”–and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

image credit: istock via pexels.com