Have you looked at the news of late,
at what new calamities the world can create
all plastered on the front page
as if we’re all upon the stage
of some Greek tragedy?

There is a crazed racket of noise
voiced
by the newspapers and news anchors
on televisions,
all repeating renditions
of doom and gloom
that leave little room for hope.

Wars rage on the very first page,
and the page after that asserts that
this or that spat
will in fact
become a war tomorrow.

And on page three
are the refugees who flee
those wars
only to wash up on shores
where they’re not wanted.

Page four has more,
from terrorist acts
to economic collapse
lined up by first drafts
of a peace accord
that went ignored
while everyone went on fighting.

And all of this unease
has high degrees of complexities,
which means
that we can’t easily solve the world’s pollutions
with simple conclusions or quick-fix solutions.
And so all of my disillusions only grow.

And I ask: What have we done to the world we come from?
When hopelessness pervades
the prayer that I’ve prayed
is that we won’t we have to lie in the bed that we’ve made.

And we cry out to God for Mercy.
And his answer to us is His son, Jesus.

For on Friday a crown of thorns sat upon his brow
but by Sunday an empty tomb held the promise that now
the worst of kinds of news can be redeemed and infused
with hope.

Jesus,
Silence the news and the views
of those who would tell us that the world will come to nothing
for you are the thing the world will come to.
You. Only you.

These headlines that roll on
will not be the words that I stand on
for my hope is built on the one who gave me breath
and whose power conquered death!

Yes, death has been swallowed up in victory!
So fear and these headlines have nothing on me.
And in the face of whatever news I might be given
I will declare this one headline: “Jesus has risen!”