The sailing of the ark, 14

wordsout by godfrey rust
The sailing of the ark < 14 of 45 >

Here is the plain good news—God
died immortal, loves all men equally

and some more equally than others,
comes not to judge but to judge, brings peace

with a sword, frees us
into complete subjection where first

is last, poor rich, and folly wisdom, where at the end
all shall be united, and split up.

One God, three Gods, the riddle of the Trinity;
God-man, the paradox of incarnation;

King of a world ruled by somebody else,
who makes disciples of their own free will—this is

the God whom we believe and don't believe.
And this we call the simple gospel truth.

A summary of thirteen unresolvable Christian theological conundrums. Most are paradoxes (that is, two logically incompatible assertions which are simultaneously held to be true). A few (such as poor/rich and first/last) are oxymorons, playing on different meanings of the same word.

Most of this sonnet (along with sonnet 15) was used in adapted form in the lyrics of Healing Touch (The Theologian's Prayer) on my album Prayers in Time.