There is nothing more confusing to the postmodern
personality, to the millennial sojourner, than to have to exist between the
strange life of dealing with your Blues and Gospel all the time. Madness and
ministry, chaos and Christ. My father heard an elder in Georgia say it this
way. When he asked her, “How are you doing, Mother?” she said, “I’m living
between Oh Lord and Thank you, Jesus.”
Rev. Dr.
Otis Moss III
______________________________________________
I have never been oppressed
I have been treated unfairly,
And accused of things that are not true
But most of my pain has been of my own making
And most of the flaws and errors attributed
Have been real
As a white male
Raised in relative affluence by decent parents
As a person with tons of privilege
A great education
Degrees and influence
Whatever obstacles I have faced in life
Have been minimal
I don’t know how it feels to be black, or indigenous
To deal with systematic oppression
Or with transgenerational trauma
I have been
Comfortable
For lack of a better word
And then along comes Jesus
Not the Jesus I met in the Sunday School classroom
In the basement of the Presbyterian Church in Lakeview,
Oregon.
The Jesus introduced to me by my youth group leaders
Or those ministers who influenced me in college
Not even the one sliced and diced by my seminary
professors at Princeton
Not a Jesus who is a ticket to heaven (get me out of here
God!)
Not a Jesus who wants me to pull away from a sinful world
And huddle in fear
Nor a Jesus who wants me to grab power and wealth and
control the world
(still out of fear)
Not a Jesus who is about exclusion, and piety
And, if truth were told, retribution not grace
The things I was taught about Jesus which no longer seem
true
Could fill a book
But along comes Jesus
A Jesus who says (Mark 1)
“The time has come, the kingdom of God has come near.
Repent and
believe the good news!”
A Jesus who calls me to let go of everything
To die!
So that I might be raised to newness
A Jesus who is real, powerful,
Who fills me with a little bit of everything that is
Sacred
Joy, hope, peace, kindness, forgiveness,
And yes, pain
Pain over the pain I see
Anguish over the injustice and inequity
Over poverty
Racism
Hate
A Jesus who wants me to change
To turn from all that is not love
To become the best self I can possibly be
Not to escape wrath
But to become a person who touches the people around me
With Sacred Love
And works to change the world into the likeness of heaven
Who strives to bring the kindom of God nearer
So here I am
Living between
Oh Lord and Thank you, Jesus.
Seeing the world
Being stunned by the greed, the hate
The lust for power
The lies
The distortion of the Gospel
The malignancy
Seeing myself in the mirror
Still a mess
Still so full of confusion and fear
Still making mistakes that hurt others, and me
And yet being so thankful
For Jesus
For resurrection
For newness
For the power I am given to work for Love
O Lord, help!
Thank you, Jesus, for all good things
The time has come
The kindom is near
I need to change
The world needs to change
I am called to change
I am called to participate in creating change
Not by insisting on dominance and control
But by loving, forgiving, caring, sharing
Oh, Lord! (Help!)
Thank you, Jesus,
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