My one call to fame
is that I saw
the very first episode of Dr Who –
now that ages me!
Today I don’t keep up
With this famous sci-fi thriller.
Therefore, I had never heard
of
the Weeping Angels.
Apparently,
they are a race
of predatory creatures
that resembling stone statues.
According to The Doctor,
the Weeping Angels
“are as old as the universe
(or very nearly),
but no one really knows
where they come from.”
He also describes them
as “the deadliest,
most powerful,
most malevolent life-form
ever produced.”
On Palm Sunday,
we hear of Christ
weeping over the stones
of Jerusalem.
For he perceived
in its heart
an evil
not of fiction
but of sad reality;
by that I mean,
the evil
humans can do to each other.
And that seems as old
as the universe too
and again
no one often
can tell where it comes from.
Of course,
his tears that day
would not be the only ones
shed in the week ahead.
For his followers
would weep for their master,
Peter would weep for his denial,
Judas for his betrayal
and possibly most poignant of all –
a mother would weep for her dying son.
Here then is a story
that can chill
more than any TV monster.
Yet we have the antidote
to any scary moments
ahead.
We have the sight
of the empty tomb,
we have the companionship
of the risen lord
and we have his strength
to glimpse heaven
just around the corner.
And how do we tune
to that programme?
Well, we can do that
in a blink of an eye.
We can do that in prayer.
Let us pray
for the rebuilding
of a better global Jerusalem
here and now.
Lord God,
you cried over your people
and we cry with you.
For we know the road ahead,
its every pothole and place of ambush.
We know it is we who wait on the side-lines
and silently watch you slip by
on your way to the anguish
of a night’s silent garden,
of a betrayer’s wine-stained kiss,
of the shout of hammer on nail.
Lord God,
you cried over your world
and we cry with you.
For we know only too well
the hurt and despair,
the lack of peace and hunger for war.
Yet we know too
there is love and healing enough.
You showed it yourself
in your gentleness and compassion.
You said it yourself from a cross
and you proved it once and for all
in an empty tomb
just when the world believed
it was all empty words.
Promised Messiah,
visit the desperate places.
King of kings,
give strength to the powerless places.
Living Word,
walk in the lifeless places.
Servant saviour,
tend in the needy places.
Rejected sufferer,
comfort in the painful places.
Death defeater,
bring wholeness and healing
to all places.
And start here, Lord, among us.
Indeed, we now offer
our own tear prayers
Amen.
