Hearts or Stones

While God waits for the temple to be built out of love

We bring stones

              Rabindranath Tagore (slightly adapted)

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The American “church” measures success by butts in the pew

The size of budgets

The extravagance of the pastor’s mansion

We build massive auditoriums and load them

With the latest technology

And have praise band sing

Amidst lights and smoke

We support sexual predators for President

And sexual predators for Congress

We shame the poor

Enrich the rich

We rob from the vulnerable

And give to the bloated

We judge

And hate

And exclude

And we weigh the world down

With stone

We worship money

And advocate violence

And then we wonder

Why the same sacred seems strangely missing

Thank God for little churches

Hiding in small towns

Where success is measured in casseroles

And in hugs

Where people are accepted just as they are

(and we know who and what they are)

Where love and forgiveness are a way of life.

and the aged and faithful few

wield more spiritual power

than can be sought

imagined

there is only one building material

in the Kingdom of God

love