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Writer Lancelot Schaubert explores the meaning of words and translations in this poem responding to Luke 8:19-21.
Luke 8:19-21
Philadelphia
By
Lancelot Schaubert
Credits:
Photo Credit by Dan Mall on Unsplash
Curated by:
Rebecca Testrake
2023
Poetry
Primary Scripture
His mother and brothers came to him, and they could not come near him for the crowd.
Some people told him, “Your mother and your brothers stand outside, desiring to see you.”
But he answered them,
“My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it.”
Luke 8:19-21
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These three pieces work in tandem. They're meant as a running commentary on (1) the sorts of people who are close to us who reject the work of the miraculous in our lives and through our lives, (2) the kinds of silly exegetical traditions that exist as little more than a prop for church splits, (3) the metaphysical absurdity of the miraculous as the miraculous, when it happens, (4) a call to see James as a miracle worker in his own right, a cousin, and someone who would have been as baffled as anyone else — though joyful — in the presence of the miraculous. Sometimes the "sons of Thunder" stuff becomes such a focus, I wanted to focus on something else for St. James.
To see the other pieces from Lancelot, click the links below:
Spark Notes
The Artist's Reflection
Lancelot has sold work to The New Haven Review (The Institute Library), The Anglican Theological Review, TOR (MacMillan), McSweeney's, The Poet's Market, Writer's Digest, and many, many similar markets. (His favorite, a rather risqué piece, illuminated bankroll management by prison inmates in the World Series Edition of Poker Pro). Publisher's Weekly called his debut novel BELL HAMMERS "a hoot."
He has lectured on these at academic conferences, graduate classes, and nerd conventions in Nashville, Portland, Baltimore, Tarrytown, NYC, Joplin, and elsewhere.
The Missouri Tourism Bureau, WRKR, Flying Treasure, 9art, The Brooklyn Film Festival, NYC Indie Film Fest, Spiva Center for the Arts, The Institute of the North in Alaska, and the Chicago Museum of Photography have all worked with him as a film producer and director in various capacities.
Lancelot Schaubert
About the Artist
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Related Information
It would be terribly inconvenient
If ἀδελφός meant fellow countrymen
Or fellow man or business fellowship
FOR LOVE OF COMMON WOMBS UP THE BLOODLINE.
By Lancelot Schaubert
It would be terribly inconvenient
If ἀδελφός meant fellow countrymen
Or fellow man or business fellowship
Or brethren in faith, step-brothers, or meant
Cousins. “Cousins” throws a wrench in the wren,
Metal to make wings spiral on downward:
Fallen angels or men melting wax strips?
Two yokels talk at the scene of The Fall:
“Thought those were his brothers?”
“Nope, just cousins.”
It takes one trip to Philadelphia
To realize “same womb” can mean mom, mother,
Or sometimes an earlier womb bygone.
For they treat each other less with fiat,
More like Middle Eastern cousins with bombs:
“Me against my brother; me and brother
Against cousin; me and my cousin, you.”
First same womb, same dad; same womb, diff dad;
Then same womb of my dad’s dad’s dad’s dad’s—
Father Abraham had many sons, sons
Father Abraham. I am one of them
And so are you, so let’s just praise The Lord.
From stones, he said he could raise up cousins,
But somehow cannot do so from cousins?
“Is not this the carpenter, the son of
Mary and ἀδελφός of James, Joses
And Judas and Simon, and are not his
sisters here with us?” And they took offense
at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet
is not without honor, except in his
own country, and among his own cousins
and in his own house.”
Do we seek context?
Do we even try to understand it,
To see what’s right before our eyes? Mirrored?
I could stack citations up, up skyward;
Speak up of all the times translation slips
Two yokels stare, hear the scene of Our Fall:
“Nope, just brothers.”
“Thought those were his cousins?”
It takes one trip to Philadelphia
To realize sometimes there’s a crack in bells
Allegedly first sounded for freedom.
Is our faith so fragile? We Protestants?
Need we preserve our Quincentenary
Bitterness with flimsiest evidence?
Do we even know about the third one?
The third Mary?
“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his Mother
(Mary), his mother’s ἀδελφη,
Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary
Magdalene.”
Poor James. To be denied sainthood simply
To sully the virgin status of Aunt
Mary.
Philadelphia’s stones still crack.
Cracked. Stoned.
The oracle at Delphi was
Virgin. And the dolphins get to take shape
Of virgin wombs, so does Numbers 30
(The perpetual virginity verse For married women who have had their kids).
But not she who bore the body of God.
It’s not good enough for her. Ignore texts:
Let her also bear a Bro — Jimmy’s body
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It would be terribly inconvenient
If ἀδελφός meant fellow countrymen
Or fellow man or business fellowship
