Barista

 

Showed up at breakfast

without much appetite

anxious about the day ahead

Hadn’t slept much the night before

tossing and turning in the strange bed

listening to unfamiliar sounds

fretting that I wouldn’t be enough

for the critical audience I’d encounter 

the next day, at a cross professional gig.

I waited irritably to be acknowledged

and shown to a table

wondering why I’d bothered 

to come to the restaurant

Why hadn’t I just made coffee in my room?

And then, as he took my order,

he called me ‘sweetheart’

And I felt my shoulders relax

and my breath quicken before slowing

And my smile widened 

in response to his.

As I sipped the coffee

I shed the self importance

that had tied me in knots

and shrugged off the fear

of not measuring up

Old stuff

that never served me well anyway

And began to see the morning

through the eyes of the barista

who made wonderful coffee

and called me sweetheart.

Liz Crumlish 2025

Resist now

 

Luke 12:49-52

“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptised, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three;

It’s a long way from ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ 

Jesus doesn’t work in binaries - Remember?

In Jesus’ way, there is room

Room for diversity

Room for contradiction

Room for peacemakers

And room for those who stand against evil

Room for those who defend the weak

And room for those who refuse to settle for peace at any cost

Look at the signs

Refuse to settle for less

Refuse to stay quiet

Resist those, even those whom we love

who refuse to see

the divine spark that is buried

in each of God’s creations

The divine spark that kindles the fire of anger

when some are discarded

or used as collateral 

in political power games

Look at the signs writ large on the world stage

Amplified in local communities

And RESIST

Resist the myriad ways 

that diminish the image of the Divine

placed in every being

in the moment of Creation

Kindle the flame

Release the energy

Speak up 

Practice justice 

Protect the weak

Call out evil

And know Christ who walked this way

gives us courage now.

Liz Crumlish 2025

Deliciousness

 

Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.              John 20:18

I know the deliciousness

of a treasure held within

I was on a silent retreat

when news of the expected arrival

of our first grandchild was shared

Remaining in silence

treasuring that gift

of joy

of wonder

of anticipation

was a gift that amplified the delight

and somehow deepened the treasure

And I thought of Mary Magdalene

alone with the news of Jesus resurrection

How long did she allow

that intimate joy

to froth and fizz inside her

How long did she contain that treasure

as a delectable secret

with which she had been entrusted

How long did she bask in the knowledge

that was hers alone

I hope she revelled in her splendid isolation

as the one to whom Jesus chose to reveal

the truth of resurrection

I hope she took a moment - or more

to luxuriate in the exquisite revelation

before she fulfilled her commission

to go and proclaim the resurrection

to the world.

Liz Crumlish, Feast of Mary Magdalene 2025

Women with broad shoulders

 

The Nunnery, Iona

Giving thanks today...

for all those women who paved a way

and on whose shoulders I have stood...

For Sarah and her laughter,

 Hagar who named God,

Rebekah the trickster

and Leah, the unloved

Athaliah, a queen with sass

and Jehosheba, the righteous one

Miriam, awesome sister

and Abigail, a prophet

Gomer, lover of men

and Bathsheba, creator of kings

Shiphrah and Puah, subversive midwives

Esther, the beautiful one

and Ruth, the faithful one

Naomi, the depressed

and Anna, the fulfilled

Dorcas and Martha, home makers and creators

Mary the willing

and Elizabeth, the wise

Julian, the passionate

and Hilda, the founder

Teneu, who birthed a saint,

Photini, who is one

Those of the past and those of the present

Wise women

Witches, hags and crones

Birthing communities

Birthing stories.

Birthing faith, hope and love

And blazing a trail for women

throughout the ages

throughout the world.

Liz Crumlish

author of Miriam's Sisters, Deborah's Daughters

Canterbury Press March 2025

Not over yet…

 Lamentation 3:19-24

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness

is wormwood and gall!

My soul continually thinks of it

and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

In the silence of this day

when the crowd baying for blood

have gone home satisfied

to cherish their moment of victory

God does not rest from justice

Already hell is being harrowed - 

that work of pulling from the depths

those condemned and rejected is underway

There are those who imagine the fight is over

While God continues to work underground

Recovering and restoring the depth and vibrancy and colour

of all the long forgotten hues

that the creator endorsed

at the beginning of time

whispering to each:

The divine spark lives in you

You are beloved - and 

Resurrection is coming

May it be so.

(Liz Crumlish, Holy Saturday 2025)

Non binary affirmation

 

John 13:1-6

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

Jesus washed their feet 

all of them

In the middle of the celebrations

Jesus stooped to wash their feet

and dried them with a towel

an act of pre-meditated care

that showed how things might be

And then at table, 

Jesus fed them

all of them

in an act of pre-meditated love

that traversed every divide 

For all are welcome

All are loved

All are included

And the divisions we encounter

And the labels we impose

are not of God

who created all in marvellous love

and who holds all in unfathomable light

and who enables all in incredible potential

beyond our restrictive binary notions

So you, my friend

You are God’s beloved 

The very image of God

May you encounter God

stooping to wash your feet

May you see God

offering you a place at the table

May you know God

loving the very bones of you

marvellously created in the image of a non-binary God

(Liz Crumlish, Maundy Thursday 2025)