{"id":109,"date":"2009-01-27T14:18:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-27T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/the-priory.html"},"modified":"2009-01-27T14:18:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-27T14:18:00","slug":"the-priory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/the-priory.html","title":{"rendered":"THE PRIORY"},"content":{"rendered":"

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THE PRIORY<\/p>\n

The icicles hung on the eaves outside
But the adams were gone on retreat
The caretaker said \u2018only God is inside
And there\u2019s nothing here you can eat\u2019.<\/p>\n

The chapel was silent, oppressively still
The cross hung above the enclosure
Hard benches on the nave\u2019s narrow sides
And next to them more than one crozier.<\/p>\n

Not a voice in the room, not a bird in the air
The winter wind outside kept blowing
The caretaker said \u2018only God is inside\u2019
But if so, why wasn\u2019t he showing?<\/p>\n

A widow quite wizened and left all alone
Entered as if on cat\u2019s feet,
Slipping right past me and kneeling right down
She entreated while being discrete. <\/p>\n

After time had slipped by, she quietly left
A sweet smile creased her old face
In a voice barely audible, pointing within
\u201cSurely God\u2019s inside this place\u2019<\/p>\n

Sun rose Easter morning, casting its pall
The mourners raced to the tomb
The stone was rolled back, no body within
And nothing relieved their gloom.<\/p>\n

Yes the tomb it was empty, God didn\u2019t abide
But the angels had a strange story
\u2018He\u2019s left the building, so fear thee not\u2019
But they fled, struck dumb by the glory.<\/p>\n

Does absence of presence, or presence of absence
Really prove he rose and abides?
Or was it encounter with Jesus himself,
The outsider who now dwells inside?<\/p>\n

The bells tolled twice, calling to prayer
The sky was Carolina blue
\u2018Inasmuch as he did it for the widow this day
He\u2019ll do it again for you\u2019.<\/p>\n

I put on my jacket and braced for the cold,
The caretaker smiled as I passed,
\u201cI told you that God only dwells inside
And I guess you believe me at last.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jan. 27th 2009 Weston Vermont<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE PRIORY The icicles hung on the eaves outsideBut the adams were gone on retreatThe caretaker said \u2018only God is insideAnd there\u2019s nothing here you can eat\u2019. The chapel was silent, oppressively stillThe cross hung above the enclosureHard benches on the nave\u2019s narrow sidesAnd next to them more than one crozier. Not a voice in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nTHE PRIORY - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/the-priory.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE PRIORY - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE PRIORY The icicles hung on the eaves outsideBut the adams were gone on retreatThe caretaker said \u2018only God is insideAnd there\u2019s nothing here you can eat\u2019. 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}