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Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Thursday, November 19, 2015

How did we manage to get it so wrong?


Oh Sacred One
the one I know
the one revealed in Jesus

who showed what it can look like
when we let the Sacred
which is love

flows through us into the world

how did we get it so wrong?
our concept of how you work,
your essential nature

how did we manage to take a God of love
and create a God of anger
who is ultimately downright mean?

how did we make you one to fear
one who must be appeased
in order to avert

disaster
death
worse!
eternal torment

how did we make you so ready
to punish
to curse?

even our concept of grace
can only be reached
through pain and death

this all affects us Lord
it causes us to fear
to judge
to reject
to exclude
to barricade our country
and even our hearts

as we cling to this version of
You that has little room
for inclusion

we become the opposite
of what you desire for us

we struggle to love, to find generosity
even at our best we tolerate
rather than accept

we see your love as conditional
(if we are honest)
and our love becomes conditional too

I don’t know what to do with this God
I see pious mems
I see hateful comments
I cringe at the behaviors of those who would be your people

I love you
I love you in Jesus
I love you in those I see around me in my church
I love you in those people who litter the world
the failures
the haters
the fearful
the strugglers

but right now
it simply feels like we have gotten it very wrong

and instead of being conduits
for the healing of the world
we have become
part of the problem with the world
(we who would “follow” You)

and I am sad

O Lord forgive us
Remind us You are Love
Teach us
to
love

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