Time to stop

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“Who are the pagans?” A child, asked this question in Sunday School, replied, “The pagans are the people that don’t quarrel about God.” 

          Madeleine L’Engle, A Stone for a Pillow

______________________________

 

Isn’t it sad,

That we use that power that is all Love

All unity

All wholeness

All peace

And creativity

 

And use it as an excuse for

Division

Dis-ease

Strife

And destruction?

 

We with our sacred tomes that we use

To batter each other

We who take the Bible, the Torah, the Koran

(or whatever)

 

And turn words written by seekers

Into the end of the search. 

 

How dare we!?

 

Jesus made it clear that our old

Systems

Beliefs

Traditions

Rules

 

That our old literalism

Miss the mark

 

And is it missing the mark that is Sin

And is it turning around and going another way

That is redemption

 

That is why he told us to die to the old

Perhaps even murder it?

In order to find the new

 

That is why he spoke in absurdities

That if rightly understood

If seen from the perspective of love

Are not absurd at all

 

Blessed are you when you are poor

When you mourn

When you fight for just

 

Not blessed are you IF you are poor

But even if you are poor, sad, lost, confused, angry

You are still blessed by the power

That pours out blessing on us all.

 

And knowing that we are always blessed

We are free

Alive!

 

Free to walk the second mile

Turn the other check

Love our enemies

Bless those who curse us

 

And we can say with the great Nez Perce chief

Chief Joseph (the mountain I see every morning is named after him

And this was his land, before we stole it)

 

“I am tired; my heart is sick and sad.

From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”

 

We can join in those words

While we are sick, and sad (again the beatitudes)

Because we are loved by Love

And we are free to do life another way

 

The Jesus way

 

On the cross, Jesus said, essentially,

As he forgave and blessed,

This

This hate

This violence

This division

This exclusion

This

 

Stops here

 

We need to join him

We have seen enough

We have experienced enough strive

Created enough pain

 

It is time to stop