Where is God

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Through centuries God’s voice cried in the wilderness.  How skillfully it was trapped and imprisoned in the temples.  How often it was drowned or distorted?  Now we behold how it gradually withdraws, abandoning one people after another, departing from their souls, despising their wisdom.  The taste for the good has all but gone from the earth.  We heap spite upon cruelty, malice upon atrocity… There has never been more reason for human creatures to be ashamed than now. Silence hovers mercilessly over many dreadful lands.  The day of the Lord is a day without the Lord.  Where is God?

          Abraham Joshua Heschel, “I Asked for Wonder”

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Has God gone silent?

Has Jesus left the building?

 

Has the Sacred decided to depart

Is the day of the Lord without the Lord?

Where is God?

 

Is God gone, or have we simply silenced the voice of love

Have we drowned and distorted God’s Word

Have tried to contain the fire of the Spirit

The wild breath of God

In our sanctuaries and our creeds

 

We have attempted to trap the wind

We have slammed shut the windows of our sanctuaries

Hoping to contain that which cannot be contained

 

But a wind that cannot move cannot move us

 

We have attempted to enshrine the Sacred

We have invoked the name of God's most high

In the high places we have created

 

Claiming God in the halls of justice

In the stifling halls of power

 

But God is not there

The wind of God is blowing

In the wilderness

In poverty stricken cities,

 

God is tenting with the homeless

 

God is digging through the rubble of Gaza

 

The voice of God cries out in the wildernesses

Created by our greed, our hate, our lust for power

 

As we in the name of God

“heap spite upon cruelty, malice upon atrocity”

God shows up

 

Among those we would throw away

Exclude

Shame

Diminish

 

Where is God?

In the rubble of Rafah

Under a freeway overpass in America

In the waters of the Rio Grande

In a bombed-out building in Ukraine

 

God is

God is present

God is love and power mixed

 

God still speaks, still acts, still loves, still transforms

In the wild places

In the broken open places

Of great need

And great humility

 

If we go to church, it may well be

that we do NOT hear the voice of God

but if we go to a person in need

if we stand with an LGBTQI+ person

if we stand with the oppressed and suppressed

 

we might well hear God’s song of love

echoing in the wilderness

Wounds at work

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Your wounds are hard at work making their sacred medicine in the hidden spaces below the scars. With loss, there may be nothing satisfying for you to reclaim. If a special person has died, or love went away, what we yearn for most is an impossible return. The sacred task at hand is to let yourself be reclaimed by something deeper than the immediacy of struggle and pain. This something need not be identified or fixated upon, but surrendered to.

          Pixie Lighthorse, The Wound Makes the Medicine

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What do we do with our pain?

What do we do when we are crushed by a parent’s death?

A lover’s betrayal?

What do we do when cancer comes?

When all the world unravels around us

and the righteous suffer, and the wicked prosper?

 

What do we do with the fear,

as hate and racism abound?

As inequity and injustice flourish?

As people worship power, and guns, and violence?

And love seems to lose, again and again, and again.

 

What do we do with the wounds,

with the broken parts of us?

 

Do we allow the pain to transform us?

Or do we go deep, to where Love dwells,

and allow the pain to be transformed?

 

Is it really that simple?

 

I do know that sometimes when I am hurt,

or when I am afraid, the pain transforms me

and makes me less.

 

It makes me angry, bitter, fearful, protective,

judgmental, and worse

 

I fear the hateful creep of fascism, and I become hate-filled.

Ugh

 

At other times what I have experienced makes me better, more.

It makes me more understanding and kinder,

it gives me the capacity to be “with” people in their pain,

and to promote healing.

 

It has been said that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

People point to wood that has been broken and is now repaired

and how a patched section of wood has a new strength.

 

But is it not the pain

It is not that which broke the wood that has made it stronger.

It is the glue

 

It is not those things which tear us and erode us that make us stronger

It is the healing

created by Sacred Presence

 

As we allow God to reknit us, reform us

We do become stronger, different

New

 

We are torn and rent by many things

Our country, our world too, have been shredded

By hate and fear

By malignant leaders who grab power and abuse it

By war

By guns

By a love of domination

By greed

 

Those things can destroy us

They can never make us stronger

But

God is

Love is

And when God who is love

Is present in our lives

 

Healing happens

And when we are healed

We can be a force for healing

 

Thanks be to the God

Who makes all things new

prophets needed

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Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world

          Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

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The world screams

The not-so-silent cry of a plundered planet

The wild rants of the rich and powerful

Shrouding silent screams of loneliness and fear

The soft sobbing of the abused, cowering

The whispered fear of children, wondering if today a shooter will come

The anguished pleas of the immigrant caught on razor wire

The desperate and angry words of the person caught in poverty and injustice

 

We hear them

The suffering ones

But we do not hear the silent agony of the soul

That deep rending pain

That can only be hinted at

Dropped into the world half-formed  

 

We too are often left speechless

We watch as evil people lie and manipulate

Belittle and bully

We hear fear disguised as patriotism

and prejudice portrayed as justice

We are overwhelmed by the hunger, the empty eyes,

Stunned by the bodies filling the doorways, sidewalks and underpasses

Because there is no room in the inn

 

But we cannot be silent

We must speak with

We must speak for

 

We must join our voice with others

And we must be the voice when all others are silent

We must respond to the silent agony

 

Hearing the words in the silence

Hearing the pain hidden in the hate-filled rants

The loneliness caught in the throat

The hopelessness unuttered

 

We must be a voice

Saying “This stops here”

“That is not the truth”

“There is hope”

“You are forgiven”

“You are loved”

 

Prophets all

We are called to proclaim God

To proclaim love

We are called to speak truth

 

And we are called to change the world

To claim and reclaim

To restore and transform

 

The arc of history may bend toward justice

Toward equity

Toward love

 

But only if we help bend it

The Promise is Enough

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It seems as if the “winter of our discontent”

will never turn into “glorious summer”

 

the darkness is so profound

late December early January darkness

that smothers and obliterates

 

leaving us lost and overwhelmed

 

this darkness rolls like storm clouds

obliterating the light

the fear deluges us, the lies

overwhelmed by pervasive hate

and foul greed

 

Evil ones promise shelter

But merely seed the clouds with more fear

More lies

 

We stand exposed

And face the storm

Small

So small

 

in these moments, bowed and cowed

I do not want to be small

I do not want to be a mustard seed, a touch of yeast

 

I want to be lightening and thunder

Earthquake and fire

I want to be a tsunami

That roars

 

But I am just me

One person

One voice

One heart

Small

 

With my little touch of faith

My little bit of love, and hope, and joy

Those meager resources I can share

With those whose lives I touch

 

But the promise is

That is enough

slow to anger, easy to calm

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There are four kinds of temperament:

 

Easy to anger, easy to calm – the negative is canceled by the positive

Hard to anger, hard to calm – the positive is canceled by the negative

Hard to anger, easy to calm – such people are truly holy.

Easy to anger, hard to calm – such people are truly wicked

          V:14 Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro)

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It rises too quickly

This anger that eats at my soul

 

I like to believe it is righteous

This indignation

 

This ferocity that rises when I hear the lies

See the injustice, the racism

The fire that burns fiercely when I see suppression and oppression

When I watch people misinformed and mislead

And sucked into the abyss of fear

 

There is a place for anger

For the prognostications of the prophets

For the fierce burning God places upon the heart

For the agony that comes when we see

The rich plunder and see the poor abandoned

When we watch the powerful abuse their power

And see precious souls dehumanized and marginalized by racism, sexism, fascism

All the “isms” of the world

 

But we cannot live in anger

We cannot carry hate

Without becoming a force for harm

 

Even if we are on the side of righteousness

Unchecked anger becomes destructive

 

Anger distorts, even blinds

Anger becomes a powerful energy that leads to excess

To rigidity

To judgment

Exclusion

Even violence, a violence that emerges in many ways

 

We need calm

We need to find a quieter and gentler place

We need to find space in our heads, and even more

In our hearts

 

Where, as we breathe in and breathe out

We create room for love

And compassion

Generosity

Even forgiveness

 

Jesus got angry, but it took a lot

It took greed camping out in the place of holiness

But Jesus had a peace that passes all understanding

The calmness of watching betrayal

Of healing another, while being arrested

Of forgiving from the cross

 

He saw it all

He felt it all

The fire burned

But it did not consume

And he found that calm at the center of his soul

That allowed him to respond to the evil around him

Not with evil, but with love

 

Lord, this day

Help me to be slow to anger

And easy to calm

 

Help me to be holy

Finding the words

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If I can find the words in my mind

The words could explain, but the words won't come…

And I don't know what to say

          The Zombies, Chris White

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It is like a silent scream

It builds inside me, filling me until I am stretched

 

Engorged

 

Unable to contain it all and yet

Caught with the unutterable

 

All around me, there is pain, anger, fear, distrust, hate

There are people trusting the deceitful,

living a lie

living without insight or understanding

 

pushing our world into the abyss

of climate change, division, and war

 

I pick it up and carry it

The slide into fascism

The racism

The inhumanity at the border

 

I pick it up and carry it

the pain of those I listen to and counsel

those who come to me with their own fear and pain

 

words spill out

there are always words

but they seem to get lost

 

I speak from the pulpit, and the words twist and vanish

Do they touch hearts?  Heal souls?

In counseling, I seek to say words that will unlock insight,

help people heal themselves (or their relationships)

but do I help?

 

Amid many words, I feel wordless

as if the words needed somehow

don’t come

 

not the right words

not

the kinds words

the healing words

the Spirit Words

 

those, perhaps, are stuck in my throat

in my heart

perhaps those Spirit Words are entangled

in my own inner chaos

 

I know I cannot “fix” the world

that it is not my job to heal people

they have to do that themselves

I am no Jonah, no Isaiah

Who can turn a city, and nation around

 

but I can speak words of love

of hope

of joy

 

I can speak words that open doors,

create space

raise questions

 

For today I will speak to God

I will shout to the skies

I will curse, perhaps

Lament

 

I will cry out for release

and will

try to find the words

to say to all I

I love you

How Long

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How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

          Psalm 13

 

"Open wide the door of your formless heart and allow God to God in you."

Conor McCourt (Whispers from the Sanctuary

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I have heard it said

that we have shapeless hearts

we are creatures unformed

 

ready to be shaped and molded

 

it matters, it seems

what we take into our souls

what we read

who we listen to

whom we trust

 

we cannot remain empty

for the world assails us

we sink deep into the depths and the pressure grows

as we watch the machinations of human creatures

who have lost their compassion

who have chosen the way of power and cruelty

 

we watch liars adored

the rich prosper, the poor suffer

we see evil people prosper

and good people die too young

 

we watch as the planet burns

and humans rain death and destruction on other humans

we watch children killed

We see the blood on the floor of American schools

The shattered bodies of Palestinian, Israeli, Ukrainian children

 

It is all too much

 

empty we would implode

and so we seek to fill ourselves

we look for a savior

 

desperately seeking we consume whatever we think

will keep us powerful, wealthy, safe

 

and our shapeless hearts are shaped

by whatever we draw into ourselves

by whomever we choose to listen to, and follow

 

it is easy in our pain, our fear

to choose poorly

to seek power, or wealth

to choose the path of domination and control

to lust for retribution

 

so easy

 

and thus we let hate-filled leaders

fill us with hate

people caught up in greed, seduce us with promises of wealth

people filled with resentment fill us with a desire to hurt and punish

 

our shapeless hearts become hard

and we respond to pain by creating more pain

to violence by creating more violence

to hate by creating more hate

 

we drop bombs

send drones

close borders

shame and abandon the vulnerable

embrace racism

pursue power and wealth

 

This is why the wicked prosper

 

Open our hearts, O Beloved one

Open our shapeless hearts

And fill them with your presence

 

The world is a mess

The evil do prosper

Justice is a joke

Equity is a distant dream

 

Fearmongers on the right

Fearmongers on the left

And there we are in the middle

 

Crying out “How long!”

 

Shape our hearts O Lord

So that we may resist the world with love

So that in the midst of our lament, we may still love

So that as everything falls apart around us

We may still love

 

 

love alone

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It was as if

all the miseries of human creatures

had rained down

 

pain and hate and fear

searing the soil, consuming the fragile buds of the acacia tree

leaving nothing

but stones

 

there with only a stone for a pillow, he sat

this beloved child

surrounded by whisperings

 

make this stone bread

 

It is all yours if you want it

All the power!  Grab it

All the fame and fortune!

 

You can be king of the world

Yes, you can!

 

There is that place where there was only want

Where there was every excuse to grab power

The Beloved chose another way

 

He did become exalted, with a name that is above every name,

He did become one to whom every knee should bow and tongue confess

But not by grabbing power

 

 

He humbled himself

He gave it all up

The power, the glory,

Even life

 

To love us to God

To show us the way

 

Power without love becomes cruel

Heartless

Cruel

 

Greg Abbott

Donald Trump

And so many more

 

Some, wanting what is wrong

Some, perhaps, wanting what is right

Have heard the whisperings

And responded

 

Have chosen to grab power

To control, to dominate, to coerce, to punish

 

There is no right relationship possible here

Just walls

Just people with power, and people without

People with, and people without

People winning and people losing

People turning other people into objects

To be “acquired, controlled, used and discarded” (Spellers)

For power

 

The world has never gotten better

We have moved no closer to the Kindom of God

When the state, the church, and individual Christians

Have listened to The Whisperer

 

It has only gotten crueler

More deadly

More unjust

More divided

 

We have not learned

That we can have it all, and have nothing

And we can have nothing and have it all

 

What good is it

If we win the world

But lose our souls

 

There is only one path to true power

One path to the Kindom

One path

 

Paul said it well

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Phil 2)

 

The path of humility

And servanthood

 

Jesus showed us the way

It is not an easy way

It seems nonsensical. It seems impossible, weak

 

We act as if Jesus was wrong

But if the cross shows us anything

It shows us that the power of God shows up most

When we are humble

When we cede

When we serve

When we love

 

There is a way other than domination

Maybe we ought to try it.

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There is no possibility for right relationship if one powerful group protects and sustains itself over and against all others. From there, it’s just too easy to construct binaries and hierarchies of human existence. Our group is good; all of you are bad. Our group belongs on top; we have to keep you low. Our group owns these resources and knows the best way to use them; you will only receive what we give you. Other members of the human family become objects and tools to be acquired, controlled, used, and discarded.

          Stephanie Spellers, The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New

Hope for Beloved Community (New York: Church Publishing, 2021), 39.

 

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Justice without love is not justice. Love without justice is not love.

 Mother Teresa

 

If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

          Paul