Parable before the Sermon in Nazareth

At breakfast on the Sabbath morning
when he was going to preach
in his home-town synagogue,
he looked around the table
at his hovering anxious parents,
maybe a couple fragile new disciples,
the sunlight streaming in the door
reminding him of the other heritage,

and he said, “Sometimes my words
are like a deep chalice
that holds all God’s children
in their most vulnerable times,

and sometimes my words are a spoon
to stir things up,

I will save the chalice for later.”