it was Friday
on Sunday desperate people had protested hopelessness
and dared believe in hope
shouting Hosanna
a cry of dissent they had asked to be rescued
from systems of oppression
from religious bigots
and political hacks
and the greedy rich
save us! Now!
and there had been signs of hope.
a table tossed
the pious challenged
but the duplicitous were
not convinced
show us a sign!
show us a sign!
a sign?
you shall have a sign?
the sign of Jonah
the One you love
what you love
all you love
all you yearn for
pray for
hope for
will be swallowed up
swallowed by the monster
consumed, engulfed, hidden
gone
gone for a while
until it comes again
and now it was Friday
and the monster had swallowed love
it was all gone!
hope, compassion, kindness, acceptance, welcome
destroyed
devastated by every swing of the whip
every taunt
every blow of the hammer
every gasping breath
now it was Friday
and it was finished
empire had won!
the need to dominate and control had won!
hate and bigotry had won!
love had been murdered
swallowed up
but remember Jonah
who festered in the monster’s belly
but ended up where God wanted him to God
a reluctant savior
arrest,
injustice and death
entombment
yet out of those hours
those days
of darkness
came life
perhaps it always works this way
when love confronts hate
when servanthood confronts domination
perhaps the monster
that is racism, authoritarianism, greed
will momentarily win
perhaps we will always spend time in the belly of the
whale
in darkness
before we eventually find our way to the light
Gandhi was gunned down
Martin Luther King Jr. too
Mandela was imprisoned
what are we to think
as children are slaughtered so human creatures
can have their instruments of death?
what are we to think
as authoritarians suppress the vote
and take away freedom
for the LGBTQI+ community
and women
and minorities
what do we do as love
and justice,
and equity are swallowed up
in Florida, and Tennessee
what are we to do
as the systems of the world are
controlled by people so in love with power
that they will lie, and cheat to keep that power
and will, once they have it, abuse that power?
the monster lives
and we are in the belly
remember Jonah who, out of the belly of the monster
ended up where God needed him to go
remember Jesus
who left the tomb behind
maybe like Jonah, reluctantly
like Jesus, willingly
we must go through moments in the belly
moments when all is darkness
moments when we let go
of everything
our plans, agendas,
power
above all our power
in order to find our way to where
we are meant to be
in order to embrace the divine plan
which is love and life
in Jesus’s time, the empire did its best
to crush, destroy and control
in our time the same foul powers are at work
we see them expelling black legislators
denying the existence of trans people
we see them grasping their money
their guns
their political power
their control
but it is only Friday
and Love has plans
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