Mercy

By John F. Deane

Unholy we sang this morning, and prayed

as if we were not broken, crooked

the Christ-figure hung, splayed

on bloodied beams above us;

devious God, dweller in shadows,

mercy on us;

immortal, cross-shattered Christ—

your gentling grace down upon us.

– The exert of this poem is found in Stanley Hauerwas’ Cross-Shattered Christ (p. 10). The full poem is found in Deane’s book Manhandling the Deity.