The Ladder Of Ascent Poem by Daniel Brick

for Kory

The week is like a ladder
we climb day by day until
Sunday when we reach
the highest rung and we pause
and rest. And there, out there,
beyond us is the vista that stretches
all the way to Heaven. That pause
contains your Sunday sermon,
your talk to the parishioners
who elected you to be their pastor,
the one who climbs the same steps
as they do, the one who gazes over
the same vista as they do, the one
prays often as they do that we will be
admitted into the Life Eternal. Such is
the life of the pastor. And the calm
you display and the summons to goodness
you invoke are the proof we need to know
you are leading us on the Right Path.

At any moment, one of us may step off
this Ladder of Ascent, with fear and trembling
which becomes hope and faith which becomes
desire and fulfillment which becomes our entrance,
our homecoming, our salvation. But that is a Mystery
we must each of us experience alone before God.
Your role is to take us across the vast plains
of the world and to accompany us each week
on the Ladder of Ascent. It is the place of
tests and triumphs, of sin and forgiveness,
of giving and receiving grace. It is your mission
to take us, holy and healthy, to the highest rung
of the Ladder of Ascent, until we take a final step
into the abyss and the Hand of God saves us,
and we are favored by His rescue forever.