Grace or Merit

May I live this day

Compassionate of heart,

Clear in word,

Gracious in awareness,

Courageous in thought,

Generous in love.

                     JOHN O'DONOHUE

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Tonight I cooked hamburgers

A lot of hamburgers

As the chaos of a rodeo swirled around me

Cowboy hats everywhere

A lot of extra long boot cut jeans (on the guys)

And really tight jeans (one the women)

And big hair

And, as the rodeo opened

Kind of a hyperventilated patriotism

A “love it or leave it”

“These colors don’t run”

Kind of patriotism

Offended patriotism

Resentful about affronts real and imagined

Hints about a liberal agenda that has dishonored the flag

And the ability to true patriots to flourish

(the slights were imagined and exaggerated, but I suspect few cared)

It was unabashed

Intense

Aggressive

And yes, arrogant

And I thought about a mind set

That must go to that place of rabid and blind loyalty

To that place where no criticism is allow

No self reflection

Where is it all

Exceptionalism

And then I thought of my faith

And the teachings of the one I followed

And the call to be

Compassionate

Honest

Aware

Self-critical

Generous

Inclusive

And I thought about how

In America

Jesus has been wrapped in a flag

And his teachings ignored

In the cause of political and economic expediency

How the counter culture faith of Jesus

Has become the faith of the status quo

How the faith of humility

Has be come the faith of arrogance

About how the faith of service has become

The faith of power and coercion

About how the faith of inclusion

Has become the faith of exclusion

And the faith of grace

Has become the faith of merit

And the faith of love,

The faith of hate

I listened to he deep voiced, ultra masculine

Rodeo announcer pontificate

And I wanted to shout out about injustice

And the shaming of the poor

About our treatment of immigrants

And our abandonment of the poor

But I didn’t

I just turned hamburgers

And felt very, very sad

When [Jesus] had finished washing [the disciples] feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”  John 13