Jeremiah 33: 14-16
Luke 21: 25-36

I was sitting with the lines from “After Annunciation” by Madeleine L’Engle,
“This is the irrational season when love blooms bright and wild. Had Mary been filled with reason there’d have been no room for the child.”
I reflected on signs we see and signs we choose to ignore. Daffodils welcome Spring around the world, but in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Kowhai is Spring’s first bloom and Pohutukawa is a native tree all recognise as a sign that Christmas - and Summer - is near.

—————

Signs

Kowhai welcomes the Spring
Pohutukawa blooms for Summer
Heralds of invitation
to step into a new season

Kairos invading chronos
Irrationally, God is at work
A righteous branch sprouts out of season
Signs of heaven and earth rejoined

Sea levels rise and forests shrink
Battles rage and lands ravaged
We see the signs
and dare to raise our heads.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 14 March 2024

Malachi 3: 1-4
Luke 1: 68-79
Luke 3: 1-6
Philippians 1:3-11

—————

Joining the Song

Move me from skepticism
to speechless wonder
from empty arms to full
from silence to Benedictus –
Blessed be the one I hold

When the life we hold
is beyond what we imagined
More than we dared hope
I join the song of God
Each harmony layering another
in the ultimate love song
Blessed be the one I hold

But dare I join this song of blessing
When all I hold feels broken?
Dare I sing love into hurt?
Sing blessing over pain and fear?
Still in tune with the Song of God
played through the universe.
A song written on our hearts
that love may abound.
Blessed be the one I hold

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 15 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

—————

Building Joy

Building blocks of living joy
Simple kindnesses lead to gentleness
Don’t worry, God is close
Be thankful, there is good to find

Share what you have;
don’t cheat;
don’t bully.

Block after block after block.
Choose joy -again and again,
Attitude, Behaviour,
Attitude, Behaviour,
Over and over
Over and over

Not because all is well, but because it isn’t.
Building towers of transcending peace
God is close.
Walls of refreshment for thirst
Gratitude discovered.

Each block, a memory
of God’s delight in you
Each block, a choice
to join with the eternal Joy of God.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 15 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Micah 5:2-5a
Psalm 80:1-7
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

—————

Small Things

God loves to use small numbers,
ordinary people,
little gifts
and minor moments.

In my smallness, may I too be used
and with haste, share within community:
holding hope together
listening to each other’s crazy stories
blessing one another.

In our connections, may we together
make sense of where God is at work.
Noticing the hand of God on another.
Making hope bigger -magnifying -

Magnificat.
Singing the power of God
in our very powerlessness
and in looking at life with eyes of faith
so discover a renewing world.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 15 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

—————

The New Way

Ending our Advent journey
to step into this new pilgrimage
Before yields to After
Ordinary to extraordinary
All will change
as starlight does its work.
At the edge of this path
the land holds its breath
and angels stretch their wings
Our month meets Mary’s nine
of audacious expectation
God’s dream from long ago
born this night in flesh and blood
embracing human struggle
As Word is laid in feeding trough
and worshipped by calloused hands
Nothing is left ordinary.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 14 March 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Isaiah 52: 7-10
Psalm 98
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)
John 1: 1-4

Prayer of Martin Luther that says, God is now of our image.

—————

Our Image

Angels and singing
Gifts and feasting

To see again
and again

Irrepressible joy
Irrepressible joy

God now of our image
our flesh and blood

Stepping into our shoes
of frail insignificance
wrapped in our swaddling cloths
interrupting our tables
we who are made in your image

Unspeakable grace
given Word.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 18 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

1 Samuel 2: 18-20,26
Psalm 148
Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 2: 41-52

—————

Finding Jesus

We assume we know
where Jesus will be found
Yet lost in the temple
a missing piece
He speaks to my silent search
In forgiveness and gratitude
But mostly
love-clothed
Linen ephod-gifted
Robe stitched with prayer
on veil fabric
once used to separate
God from creation
Now this new priestly robe
that covers me
mediating lostness
A new veil; new ephod
A new garment yet to be torn
Found in the once empty
now-found place
I am found
and clothed.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 18 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Isaiah 60: 1-6
Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3: 1-12
Matthew 2: 1-12

—————

Epiphany Gifts

Entering Epiphany
from far places
Star beckoned
kneeling in darkness
Waiting
Bags laid down
in the not yet
Gifts hidden in the shadows
knowing dawn will come
Gold will be unwrapped
Frankincense opened
Myrrh undone
For king and priest
Newborn, yet tomb-bound
In our giving
We are unwrapped,
opened,
undone
by royal robe, rent in two.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 20 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Isaiah 43: 1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8: 14-17
Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22

—————

Baptism

Descending dove
with water- wet and cold
yet more than bird and stream
This splash of life
On Your beloved
whom we the world
had waited for.
Preparing him - or us
His going and his sending
Affirmed and shaped
Claimed and called
To be re-membered
Re-embodied
His baptism mine
Incomprehensibly simple
My claim and call:
I re-member.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 20 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Isaiah 62: 1-5
Psalm 36: 5-10
1 Corinthians 12: 1-11
John 2: 1-11

—————

Renamed

Here the gift
named just or only
ordinary and lesser,
is renamed for delight
as abundant wine.
A community
forsaken - deserted - desolate
renamed to delight-full
Self-naming and labels
In need of reinvention
Word grounded in our ordinary
Of weddings and wine
Overflowing abundance on the third day
Replacing emptiness when all has run dry
The wine has run out
and we thought the laughter must end.
Overflowing abundance on the third day
When all we had was Saturdays
And watery labels.
Emptiness is not the end
Frivolous perhaps
Yet joy filled in humanity
Renamed
Delight-full
Like you.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 19 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12: 2-31a
Luke 4: 14-21

—————

Rebuilt 

In this crumbling world
where ruins rule
Broken hearts and homes
where hidden faults
lie undiscerned in rubble
Needing re-build
Brick by brick
Word by word
By a people
For a people
From lost identity
Re-found
by re-membered stories
Mason God
at work with beloved stones
To proclaim again
release, sight and freedom.
Rebuilt proclamation
for the broken.
Re-formed together.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 19 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Jeremiah 1: 4-10
Psalm 71: 1-6
1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Luke 4: 21-30

As Shakespeare said, “Pretend a virtue if you have it not”.

—————

Cliff Top

To not join with the local tales
Of how things ought to be
But speak of grace
In other’s stories
Crossing sand drawn lines
Shifts from popular
overnight, to not
and leads to clifftop danger
A more excellent way.
(although excuses tempt us down).
Too young, too old, too anything.
Dare we stay abiding?
Not uninformed, for clifftop love
It matters most
All else will fall away.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 19 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Isaiah 6: 1-8 (9-13)
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
Luke 5: 1-11

—————

Belonging

Made and called
To a place and a people
A land and a hand
At home with ourselves through others
With and to God; Reconciled.
Called and sent: to be and do
Amidst community trauma,
Seen and sent by the bigness of God
Called and sent: to be and do.
Angels and coals; messengers and painful reminders
So we discover our failures
On the way to grace renewed
Belonging matters -to us and them
Amidst failures of the day, all but given up
Seen and sent by the bigness of God
Called and sent: to be and do.
Go back to the deep with tired hands
Reset the nets to be overwhelmed
So discover your failures
On the way to grace renewed
Belonging matters -to us and them
Join the adventure; become the nets
Belonging to God, claimed by grace
Belonging to community; living by grace
Belonging to the land; planted in grace.
May my yes lead me home.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 16 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Jeremiah 17: 5-10
Psalm 1
1 Corinthians 15: 12-20
Luke 6: 17-26

—————

Believing

Whether we find God on a mountain top or a level place 
Spectacular or ordinary
I believe
As a tree planted by the river
Ordinary yet spectacular.
Amidst raw life -poverty and thirst
Drought and flood
I believe
Blessing amidst pain
Grace amidst awful
For the nobodies
the kingdom way already begun
The Word understood in healing and hope
Visible and audible
This I believe.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 16 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Genesis 45: 3-11, 15
Psalm 37: 1-11, 39-40
1 Cor 15: 35-38, 42-50
Luke 6: 27-38

—————

Becoming

Just a seedling glimpse
Of what we might yet become
Little steps for now
Away from judgement
Toward our enemies
From arrogance of expectation
To humility and grace.
From parading talents
To using gifts given
Attentive to the other
Even the enemy other
Little steps for now
Away from anxiety and fear
Those paths to anger are well trodden
From certain surety
To vulnerable transparency
From familiar brokenness
To strange dark places
The harder path Is more becoming
A lifetime of little steps
Little steps with fragile patience
Newfound wings we little understand
Yet still they make us fly.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 16 June 2024, written at Ffald y Brenin

Exodus 34: 29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3: 12 – 4:2
Luke 9: 8-36 (37-43a)

—————

Blessing

From prayer
grounded in upcoming suffering
to mountain paths
that make their way
above worry and toil
Hard the climb
Complex and dangerous the art*
To be covered by glory;
wrapped in epiphany
Touched and seen
yet so difficult to understand
No encampment allowed
for we don’t know what we say
Affirmation and glory
found in the thin places
is to be held on to;
tucked in the pocket of our soul for by and by
when life hurts and hope fades.
When you dig deep
into pocket depths
and remember glory unveiled.

*as Professor McGonagall says

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 23 June 2024, written at Chester

Deuteronomy 26: 1-11
Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16
Romans 10: 8b-13
Luke 4: 1-13

—————

The Lenten Road

Temptation is a given
on this shadowy way
we choose to walk
Heart and mouth join feet
on this way we wander
that demands our best
as we remember, God is good
Even when, in hunger
we wish stones were bread
and seek a better view than where we walk.
O Spirit of wild-erness:
Lead us to this other path
Led to bypass glory
(what a golden road it seems)
and choose not power
(another gem laid way)
nor gratification
(such a pleasurable path).
If only
the beckoning gold and gem
were holy paths
yet not,
and so we take
this other way
to true identity: o child of God.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 2 July 2024, written at Taizé

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17 – 4:1
Luke 13: 31-35 or Luke 9:28-36

—————

Night Sky

Let your stars shine
in their words of unfulfilled promise
as specks of distant hope
in the terrifying darkness
that threatens to encompass.
As I wait for the dawn
may I dare to look up
and glimpse the hope
I cannot yet claim
amidst those vast skies
of desolation and platter-ed heads.
Reframing my sight
And re-posturing my body
So I find my haven
beneath divine wings
of maternal protection
Where I weep my lament
And stitch hope back into my being
Until at last I might praise
even with a single string
believing the sun will rise.

Note: in the beautiful painting by the English Victorian painter George Frederick Watts, called Hope, a lone blindfolded female figure sitting on a globe, plays a lyre that has only one single string remaining. The background is almost blank, its only visible feature a single star.

© Rev Nikki Watkin

Isaiah 55: 1-9
Psalm 63: 1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13: 1-9

—————

Punctuation

In dry places I thirst
I yearn to see you
and know again your touch.
Too long the exile,
I long for return
to table and to garden.
To smell and touch and taste
that joy which now has gone.
A full stop looms large.
As pain and blame
threaten to end my story.
Dare I grasp instead, the comma?
Be undefined by that black dot.
Choose instead to take a breath
and not give up.
Pay for time and space with empty purse
Seek yet again the Seeker
Who makes the Word be full again.
Comma Christ: Breath of life
You waste not nor give up
for tainted pasts
But seeking change and new directions
offer yet another season
for nurture to reap its reward.
My story incomplete; the comma remains
Inviting me to make the next line count.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 3 July 2024, written at Taizé

Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32

—————

Prodigal

Farmer of prodigal generosity
who makes things new
in wasteful extravagance.
Before my words are voiced:
before I come to my senses
welcomes me home
where I may eat again from the land.
From my far country
-brothel or bedroom
Younger or older
muttering my discontent
That I might climb back into the story
And wearing your ring
move from perplexity to humility
and become the welcome.
Overcoming judgement’s folly
To offer a place to belong
Where pain and hope is embraced
enough to endure our brother
And we return to our best selves
to catch a glimpse of glory.
Prodigal God.

Note 1: The image of climbing back into the story resonates for me with Nouwen’s climbing into Rembrandt’s painting of The Prodigal.

Note 2: Brian McLaren offers four stages of faith - from simplicity, to complexity, to perplexity, to harmony/humility.

© Rev Nikki Watkin

Isaiah 43: 16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3: 4b-14
John 12:1-8

—————

Costly Choices

Where we once worried
about death’s smell
Might my most costly gift
change the atmosphere
for love’s fragrance
to evoke a new memory
of dreams and laughter
of rivers in desert lands
The smell of one that lingers
beyond odours of cynicism and despair
Offering outrageous, intimate devotion
that will not stay contained.
A gift we might have held
as grain to be eaten, not sown
Yet in hungry tears, choose to plant,
so we might yet eat again.
The goal once unwanted, yet now I yearn.
Let down my hair,
in awkward vulnerability
and extravagant hospitality.
Feast givers and fragrance pourers
Homes of welcome and empathy
invading, pervading self-giving
Unrecognised by some who sneer
yet as it was intended.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 6 July 2024, written at Taizé

Isaiah 50:4-8
Psalm 118: 1-2. 19-29 or Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2: 5-11
Luke 18: 28-40

—————

A Way

Joining Jesus
on the road
Laying down our branch.
Tourist or pilgrim?
Highest place to lowly
Praise to accusation.
Might Jesus need more
than a colt
to carry him
Held too by praise
upon the way.
Others alongside
sharing a coat
Slowing our pace
to walk the journey
or racing past
when stones themselves
will ground him in praise
God will find a way.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 6 July 2024, written at Taizé

Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14
Psalm 116: 1-2,12-19
1 Corinthians 11: 23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

—————

Pass Over

In the midst of many shadows
darkness grows and light flickers.
The table is set
for ordinary sacred
Passover remembrance
of another deliverance.
The hour had come:
the devil is at work.
Was the bread -ripped apart –
hard to swallow?
To re-member who we are.
Remove the layers; pour the water
Wash the dirt away, more or less.
For tonight a single light still flickers.
The journey’s end is near.
A road we would not choose
yet God-led to suffering.
Tread softly for much is bruised
and needs that bowl of water.
Pass over us again this night
on the edge of darkness,
with love until the end.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 6 July 2024, written at Taizé

Isaiah 52: 13- 53:12
Psalm 22
Hebrews 10:16 -25 or Hebrews 4: 14-16, 5:7-9
John 18:1 - 19:42

This poem on the last words of Jesus is the first of two poems for Good Friday.

—————

Last Words

Famous last words stick
How could we forget?
Frustration wonders, when?
Despair groans, why?
Abandonment asks, where?
Accusation wonders, who?
Pain seeks company
yet friends fall asleep
Awareness asks remembrance
yet promised undeserved paradise
Grief stands broken, alone
yet bonds are tied: this is your son.
Deep thirst cries out
as darkness looms.
When all is said and done
We are in the hands of God
As it was in the beginning.
It is finished.
Final words are not final.
They speak contradiction
to all that was
And we still ask, what is truth?
And shake dice over the leftovers.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 2 July 2024, written at Taizé

Isaiah 52: 13- 53:12
Psalm 22
Hebrews 10:16 -25 or Hebrews 4: 14-16, 5:7-9
John 18:1 - 19:42

This poem on the response of the disciples and us is the second of two poems for Good Friday.

—————

Grief

It’s hard to swallow
as waves crash around us
Shame and regret
Screaming and silence
Sleeplessness now
Why not then?
Shoulds and if onlys
are heavy burdens
darkness adds to confusion
light is hard to bear
Nothing will ever
be normal again
Can’t we just go back
to what we once knew
and thought we understood?
Today’s raw loss
when resurrection is unimaginable
must be lived
before tomorrow’s tomorrow comes.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 2 July 2024, written at Taizé

Job 14:1-14
Lamentations 3:1-9. 19-24
Psalm 31: 1-4, 15-16
1 Peter 4: 1-8
John 19: 38-42

—————

Waiting

Two by night
Gift tomb and spice
Hidden love
-yet deep -
to blanket over sin
No life held here:
this stump won’t sprout.
Sealed in stone
with scent of death.
We walk in darkness,
walled in, weighed low.
Yet not consumed
for hope is in the waiting.
While yet we ring our hands.

© Rev Nikki Watkin, 6 July 2024, written at Taizé