Sarah

Date added: 29/05/2020

SARAH

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,

       and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Look to Abraham your father

       and to Sarah who bore you. (Isaiah 51.1)

 

Genesis 18.1-15.

 

 by Silvia Dimitrova

 

Who is this woman,

Eyes uplifted,

Elderly, beautiful,

Pondering, anxious,

Right hand responsive,

Stopping laughing,

Brow furrowed,

Fingers knobbly,

Left hand supportive,

Relaxed, accepting?

 

Who is this man,

Eyebrows surprised,

Mature, elegant,

Wondering, welcoming,

Left hand cupped

Near to heart,

Beckoning hearth,

Reckoned as righteous,

Right hand blessing,

Thickening calf?

 

Who are these visitors,

Arrayed in radiance,

Mysterious in difference,

Framed by bowing

Oaks of Mamre and

Tent of Meeting,

Together as three,

Emerging out of

Scintillating leaves

Merging as One?

 

Mother of Promise

Of people and nations,

Forever empty,

Who ceased to be

After manner of women,

Laughs to herself,

Then covers it up,

Eventually conceives,

Bears and believes

‘He who laughs.’

 

Father of Promise

Of people and nations,

As good as dead,

Who previously laughed,

Suggesting a son of

Slave girl instead,

Now furnishes

Nourishing relief,

Hope against hope,

Sealing belief.

 

Lord of Promise

Of people and nations,

Proclaiming astonishing

Fertility, fecundity,

Wonderfully righting

Wrongful response:

For incoherent jest,

Co-inherence sows.

From mature oaks,

An acorn grows.

 

© Graham Kings, Nourishing Connections (Canterbury Press, 2020).

First published on Covenant June 2016 and also on Mission Theology in the Anglican Communion.