New Skins

lord

spread wide your arms

and protect us

from the multitude of your guardians

stand by those who wander

who’ve not lost the gift of hearing

and listen within their solitude

stand by those who stay and wait for you

lord

I refuse to engage prayers as a weapon

I wish it to be like a river between two shores

for I seek neither punishment nor grace

but new skin

that can bear this world

                                             Said

___________________________________________________

lord save me from people of faith

from those who would protect you

from those who would sell you

vend you

save me from those who would stand between you and I

telling me your will for my life

offering me their version of who you are

for frankly lord, what they are telling me doesn’t compute

it doesn’t add it

if I were to believe them, you are angry

cruel

judgmental

you callously send most people into eternal conscious torment

you hate a lot of people

and you teach your people to hate too

you teach your people to look down on the poor

to look down on people of color

to look down on people created in your image

but created LGBTQI

you teach your people not to just look down on others

but to shame them

exclude them

oppress them

From what I understand

You are love

From what I read, you made all people in your image

From what my soul tells, me, you are present in me, and in every person who lives

From what I see in Jesus, you are kind, generous, and forgiving

I do not see you in your guardians

I do not see you in the shouting, arrogant white males on TV

I do not see you in the Bible waving people who treat others with disrespect, because they are different

I do not see you in those who shame the poor

Or shame women

I do not see you in the pastors and priests who grope young women

and excuse their behavior by shaming those women

I do not see you in people who create chaos and anger in a Facebook thread,

And then, when it is clear they have lost the argument, try to shame people for standing against them

Accuse them of being “judgmental” and say “I’ll pray for you”

I do not see you the 100 Judases who sat down with Herod

And then presented him with a Bible, touting his greatness

While excusing the fact that in thought, word and deed, he is the enemy of Jesus

I do not see you in a Christianity that is all about personal gain

Personal safety

I do not see you in a faith that is nothing more than fire insurance

Or a tool to be used in order to coerce and manipulate others into an antiquated cultural social norm

TV evangelists make my ass twitch (French Kiss)

So does the “Ark Experience”

So does the Family Research Council, and all others who espouse bigotry in God’s name

I do not like much of what now passes for Christianity

For it seems to have little to do with Christ

Christianity started as a religion for losers

For “the least of these”

Lord, when it got power, your Church changed

We starting looking at the world from the position of maintaining power and social order instead of experiencing the profound power of powerlessness that Jesus revealed.

we stopping giving up all, even our lives

we stopped being generous

and kind

and sacrificial

and became power hungry, and entitled

We stopped meeting in caves, and built auditoriums with theater seats

And special effects

In short, Christianity almost became a different religion!

It became not Christian

I hate this lord

I am a pastor

I love you

I love your way

I don’t live it very well, some of the time, but I love it

But some much of what is being taught, and lived by those who call themselves Christian

Has nothing to do with Jesus

and I want to walk away

not from You, Lord

but from the title, the label, away from a church that

can give a messed up man a Bible, not to change him,

but to empower him.

Away from a church that spouts arrogance and an implicit selfishness from its very pores.

So, lord

Help me to listen

Help me to hear

Help me to pray

Help me to use prayer and faith in love

that sacred love might flow, like a river, between myself and those around me

Give me a new skin,

and help me be comfortable in that new skin

take me a new way

where I, through the Sacred power that resides in me (and in each of us), lifts us up world

or at least the people in it

or at the very least, the people whose lives I touch