Easter Hope Amid the Headlines

Scott Peterson is Not Scott Free
But Jesus Died So He One Day Might Be

Dead man walking.
Scott’s not talking.
Neither are his wife and son.
They got death
before his sentence.
Lives were lost, but justice won.

From his prison
where he’s livin’
Scott can see the very bay
where he dumped
that precious cargo
on that cold December day.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy
on this man we love to hate.
Every day
he’ll die by inches
till a future lethal date.

From Your cross You
had a clear view
of that bay where sin can hide.
You saw all our deadly motives,
greed and lust and hate and pride.

And Your vision
of derision
wasn’t just a casual glance.
What You focused on You shouldered
in atonement’s bloody dance.

We’re forgiven,
men and women.
Though once guilty, we’re scott free.
But the good news of Good Friday
isn’t just for you and me.

So I’m sayin’
let’s be prayin’
men like Scott awaiting death
will have claimed the life Christ offers
when they draw their final breath.

Mother Liberty is Weeping
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor and Your Brain-damaged

They disengaged her breathing tube
and want Terri to die
while in a harbor Mother stands
and cannot help but cry.

She holds a torch above her head.
It lights her tear-stained face.
Her flame burns brightly beaconing
the values we embrace.

We treasure life and liberty
and welcome those who seek
to celebrate the worth of all,
the strong, impaired and weak.

Our country claims that freedom is
for everyone who breathes
including those as yet unborn
those unnamed hes and shes.

The right to live is God-ordained
no matter what some say.
But somewhere somehow black and white
have blurred to godless gray.

Who pulled the tube and said “Enough?”
I know it wasn’t God.
And so I weep with Liberty
though some may call me odd.

A Purpose Driven Death (and Life)
Why Good Friday Depends on Great Sunday

His was a purpose driven life.
He had no wealth. He had no wife.
He didn’t write a must-read book.
He lacked a photogenic look.
Compared with how we judge success,
he didn’t score too high.

And though he didn’t know much fame,
this man stayed true to why he came.
He hung with those considered lost
and then he hung upon a cross.
Because mankind is evil-prone,
this kind man chose to die.

Still Jesus’ aim was not fulfilled
when Friday came and he was killed.
To prove his love can make us new,
he had a bit more work to do.
His purpose driven life would fail
if Death had the last word.

But there was much more to be said
by one who spoke although quite dead.
And he whose words first birthed the world
escaped the grave, its clothes unfurled,
to show that what he’d come to do
was definitely done.