Here’s a poem I wrote based on the beginning of this week’s Narrative Lectionary reading. (It’s in the Lenten Devotional.)

Bad at Math

This guy’s a little crazy, don’t you think?
This shepherd who told the whole town:
“I found my lost sheep”
Which is to say,
“I lost a sheep”
And to say,
“I left ninety-nine of my sheep to fend for themselves.”
Which is to say:
Nobody is ever going to hire that guy
To watch their sheep again.

And that woman with the coins,
Poor thing.
Her house isn’t that big
So I’m not sure how she managed
to lose a coin in the first place.
But in the second place,
She spent more than one silver coin
On that party she threw
To celebrate finding her one silver coin.

It doesn’t add up.
One sheep,
One coin,
Equal parties and joy and angels.
It’s an odd calculus
In the reign of God.
Hard to believe.
And harder to resist.