God of day and night

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God of day and night

In the great poem of creation

we read that we

were considered very good

and you

find glory

in us...

 

Breathe in us

just like you always do

and renew us

with every twilight

with every morning

with every encounter

with every opportunity

        Padraig O Tuama

________________________

 

each day Lord

is like an assault

each day the hate and fear

the enmity and cruelty

 

suck the breath out of me

until I am suffocating

gasping

failing

 

breathe on me breath of God

fill me with the love I need to live

 

help me find that original blessing in myself

help me see it in others

 

even as the forces of darkness and evil

close around us

like the cold deadly grip of the sea

 

help us walk on water

with our eyes on you

until we reach the far shore

 

where diverse nations, cultures, races, genders,

and faiths

will live without dispute

transformed by Love

 

until we arrive at that place

where we will beat our guns into plowshares

and children will no longer have to look to the sky for bombs

 

where nation will not take up violence against nation

nor train for war anymore.

 

but the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

and love will enfold us

as the waters cover the sea.

 

(Thanks to Isaiah and Habakkuk)

In the struggle

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Jesus of the struggle,

You never promised ease:

yours the pained heart; ours the pained hearts too.

You promised life in the hustle and bustle

of the everyday

Meet us in the tussle

so that we may find energy

to keep going.

Meet us with rest too.  You needed it;

we do too.

Amen

 

__________________________

 

sky pale blue frosted with cold

that deep down into the bone

cold

that freezes and immobilizes

 

my soul joins creation in this frozen place

 

the bitter coldness that deports an immigrant child

and erases the history of a people

the hardness that cannot feel the pain

of others

 

winter is cruel

and so too the winter of our resentment

and fear

 

the sun kisses the snow

gently at first then more insistent

white turned to gold

a touch of warmth

a ray of hope

 

nibbling at the edges of my frozenness

softening

 

Ah, Sacred,

Thank you for those glimmers of light

for those gentle ways you touch me

 

your presence does not ease the pain

it does not change the reality

of the cold desolation

 

but it matters

that you meet me here

giving me enough hope, joy, peace

and yes, love

to keep going

 

it seems as if it is always winter

never spring

 

but under the frozenness

lies a world of wonder

waiting to be born again

Losing for winning

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With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands, and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

          Romans 12:1-2

 

Since the beginning Jesus has taught that the nonviolent will inherit the earth.  Violence cannot defeat violence.  Fear cannot defeat fear.  Domination cannot defeat domination. God’s way is different.  God must achieve victory through defeat, glory through shame, strength through weakness, leadership through servanthood, and life through death.

          Brian McLaren, Seeking Aliveness

______________________________

 

I wake

uncertain and anxious

what will I see today

I don’t want to open my eyes

but rather to squeeze them shut

 

I don’t want to see the evil

it comes like a tsunami

all the miseries of human creatures

violence, fear, graft, abuse and retribution

the way of dominance

 

it crushes my soul

 

how do I rise and stand

light in the darkness shining?

 

it seems so much simpler

to just ride the wave

or squat down cowering

invisible

 

defeat seems inevitable

 

and yet

we are offer our lives as an act of intelligent worship

all that we are as a living sacrifice

we are to resist

refusing, despite our fear, and hate

and desire to dominate

 

to be formed by the world

 

but we are called to be transformed

by that which we have received

 

whatever fills our hearts, souls, minds

is what keeps us from being crushed

crumpled crushed

debris

 

power from within

must counter the powers from without

that is the only way

 

it is subversive

seditious

 

but we must dare to believe

that good can overcome evil

kindness, cruelty

love, hate

life, death

 

else we lose

even if we win

 

This is the day

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Turning to the day

and to each other

We open ourselves to the day

and each other.

This is the day that the Lord has made

and a day we'll have to make our way through.

Whether with ease or pain

with patience or joy

May we find opportunities for generosity

toward others and ourselves.

May we find moments of encounter

even in isolation.

May we find stories and memories

even in the most complicated corners.

May we start again

where we have failed again.

May we confess

and be confessed to.

Because this is a way of living

That’s worth living daily.

— Padraig O Tuama, Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love

_______________________________________

 

It is only 5:30 and I am already saturated by evil

it shouts at me from Facebook

from posts by people in high places

from acts of malice perpetrated

by the rich and powerful

and cheered by the discontent and resentful

 

my soul screams

how did we get here?

how did we become so disconnected

from God and the planet

from each other

from ourselves?

 

my mind will not rest

it is chaotic and troubled

 

I know my country has always leaned into racism

and that it been profoundly predatory

a user

 

but I am stunned to see it spoken out loud

blazed across official emails

sanctioned and legislated into being through executive orders

 

isolationism

apartheid

plunder of the planet

oppression

racism and more

 

where do these things lead?

not to greatness

 

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

It is easier for a camel (a real camel)

to get through the eye of a needle (a real need)

than for the rich to get into the kingdom of god

 

there is something painfully abnormal

in this hate and division

retribution, oppression and cruelty

 

something cancerous

 

we were made for connection

for walking together towards home

for helping each other and honoring creation

 

we were made to live a life worthy of living

that never tires of doing good

but we are being overwhelmed

by evil

 

so here I am, staring out the window

at what is still a beautiful world

at the wonder of snow

 

my heart hurting, my soul shrinking

 

what can I do?

 

I can turn to the day

and to the precious souls around me

 

I can open myself to catch the glimmers of light

that still remain

 

This is the day that the Lord has made

and a day I’ll have to make my way through

 

with you

The heresy of merit

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Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved we wretched souls

Grace

Gratis, Kharis,

Gratitude

 

In theological language grace is unmerited blessing

One who doesn’t need to give

Giving to those who, perhaps, don’t deserve to receive

 

This is the odd upside-down way God works

When GodWithUs arrived

A poor person not a king

In a stable not a palace

 

It was already clear that our normal ways

of thinking and evaluating were

so much nonsense

 

Think of those Magi maybe Kings

flat on the ground giving gifts of great value

to one, to all appearances

had little value

and nothing obvious to give in return

 

Already in that moment

we begin to see how it works

 

The one to whom we should pay homage

humbly offers us a gift

grace

and we?

 

we have little to offer back

just our gratitude, our love

and that is enough

 

how deviant

 

I cannot help but smile as I picture

God, Rumi style

dancing

indiscriminately tossing gifts around

love, joy, hope peace, pleasure

gifts scatter like seeds sown

by a careless sower

 

we are gifted

not because of merit

but because of love

and since we did not earn and cannot give back the gift

all that we can do

is be thankful

 

But now here we are

in a culture that obsesses over merit

in a church that demands merit

 

if you don’t have merit, no gifts for you

in fact you might lose what you already have

 

of course merit is subjective

there is the merit of compassion (not highly values)

the merit of efficiency (highly valued)

there is the merit of domination, of winning and controlling

and the merit of service, a giving of oneself for others

 

our worship of merit

turns generosity and compassion into a sin

calls for mercy into heresy

 

when we worship merit

and abandon grace

we become hard, without compassion

and cruel

 

people become objects

to be used, abused, abandoned, eradicated

 

and then we can, without remorse

kill programs that help the poor and the vulnerable

threaten, manipulate, suspend and fire

good people

 

we can deport and incarcerate

and develop concentration camps

where hope slowly dies

 

we can brag and blame

 

are we ungrateful servants

who blessed will not bless

who offered grace refuse to pass it on?

 

what happens then to grace?

grace remains

but gratitude dies

as do justice and joy

 

and we become fearful hoarders. malign manipulators

plodding our way through life

hungry

ever unsatisfied

and without love and joy

 

that is no way to live

Relentless Love

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Love relentlessly, she said,

and I want to slip these two words

into every cell in my body, not the sound

of the words, but the truth of them,

the vital, essential need for them,

until relentless love becomes

a cytoplasmic imperative,

the basic building block for every action.

Because anger makes a body clench.

Because fear invokes cowering, shrinking, shock.

I know the impulse to run, to turn fist, to hurt back.

I know, too, the warmth of cell-deep love—

how it spreads through the body like ocean wave,

how it doesn’t erase anger and fear,

rather seeds itself somehow inside it,

so even as I contract love bids me to open

wide as a leaf that unfurls in spring

until fear is not all I feel.

Love relentlessly

          Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Shared by Diana Butler Bass, The Cottage

_______________________________________

 

Love relentlessly

this is our call

we were made for this

 

for empathy and compassion

for welcome

 

we were made to take care of each other,

to walk each other home

otherwise, why are we here?

 

but is not easy to love when surrounded

by all the miseries of human creatures

as greed, and fear, and insecurity

ooze out of our pores

 

and eat away at love

like acid rain

persistent and unavoidable

 

we see injustice and inequity

iniquity too

we see the poor and the marginalized hurt

and we see the perpetrators

the predators

 

feasting

devouring resources and kindness

and love

 

and so comes anger

more than eager to slip into our souls

 

it is a conundrum

we are angry not because we hate but because we love

we love the refugee and the immigrant

the trans person who is told they don’t exist

the woman, the people of many colors who are told they are less

because they are not white

 

we see them marginalized and minimized

rejected and excluded

we sense the pain and the terror

 

and because we love

we get angry

and anger can become unrighteous

as it slides into the hot, brutal fire of hate

 

how do we love relentlessly

that which is not love

those who perpetrate injustice and cause so much pain?

 

I do not want to hate

nor do I want to walk through life with ears that do not hear

and eyes that do not see

 

I want to be both prophet and priest

I want to see the brokenness of the world

I want to be incapable of unseeing it

I want to feel the pain of injustice

and protest, loudly

 

but I need to do that without hating

those who are bragging and blaming

seeking to plunder and punish

consumed by the lust for power and wealth

 

how can I see beyond the abuse and cruelty

and find space in my heart for the child of God

who is in there, somewhere

and stay in the house of love?

 

only the One who loves me relentlessly

GodWithUs

can help here

 

I must let Sacred embrace me

consume me

I must know and feel that I am loved

relentlessly

by God

 

that is my only hope

as fragile as that might be

We are connected

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“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

 

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

          Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” –

          Brené Brown

 

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”    John Muir

 

“All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We do not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” –

          Chief Seattle

________________________________________

 

we are in this together

souls bound by Sacred Presence

 

we may not know it or understand it

we may not ever want it

 

but bound we are,

by something deeper and more powerful

than that which divides

 

we are Sacred Children, precious souls

each carrying within us Sacred presence

a little piece of the divine

 

and so the Sacred in me bows to the Sacred in you

bows with reverence, humility, and respect

Namaste

 

we are connected, you and I

woven into a Sacred fabric we call community

 

there are communities defined by time and place

by creed, values, or function

by blood

 

families, churches, mosques, synagogues

a workplace, the local bar

the local park or playground

 

in those communities, we share joy and compassion, pain and struggle

it can be beautiful

 

When we share a joy, and our joy explodes and dances

from person to person, growing strong with the laughter

and the shouts of joy

 

when we share our grief and it gets lighter

with every touch of the hand, every tear

every murmured prayer

 

but community goes beyond those smaller circles

we have chosen or stumbled into

 

for we are bound also to those who are far away

to those who do not think, believe, look, or act like us

we are bound to that child in Gaza, who stares at the sky in fear

to that trans person who has been told they are hated

to that BIPOC person who is told daily, in many ways, “You are less”

 

they, too, are our brothers and sisters, and they matter

for when another is wounded, we are too

when another is excluded, we share in the pain and fragmentation of that exclusion

we share it all

and yes, when they experience success and joy, we should share that too

 

we must understand, we must, what happens to others happens to us

 

and what we do to others, we do to ourselves

 

when we hurt another, diminish another, oppress another

we hurt, diminish, and oppress ourselves

in a way that is, perhaps, far beyond our understanding

 

hate turns in on itself

 

in this time of great pain and chaos

when community is assailed

when people would intentionally divide us

when the common good is abandoned for partisan egocentricity

 

we must remember

experience

and live

that bond of love

created and maintained by the One who is love

 

for we are all in this

together

and we get to love, hope, joy, and peace

together

or not at all

 

Teach us to Love

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"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion,"

          The Dalai Lama

 

"I have no idea what's awaiting me or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment, I know this: There are sick people, and they need curing,"

          Camus (The Plague)

 

“If one of you has a child[c] or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?... 

          Jesus

_____________________________________

 

The Bible says….

Really!  Right here!

 

Keep the Sabbath

No shellfish, clams, oysters, urchins, or lobsters

No eating cats, dogs, and ferrets

No tattoos

Don’t mix fabrics

 

Do kill the pagans

All of them

 

Many point a finger at queer people and say “Bad!  Sinner!”

But what about the greedy, those who lack compassion

those who lie and cheat, commit adultery, get divorced, and

and

and

and

 

There are prohibitions everywhere, everywhere

the list goes on forever

 

no wonder so many devout souls look constipated

Dour, bitter, hard, closed

 

It is all about the rules

Keep them or else

Keep them and you are in, safe, headed toward streets of gold

Don’t keep them and you are out, doomed, and headed to

eternal punishment

 

But why are there all these rules?

Why are they there?

For God?

Or for us?

 

are they there to keep us in line, control us

or protect us and nurture us?

 

do we fully understand

why that law, in that place, in that time

 

Don’t eat shellfish

In that place and time shellfish were dangerous.

 

How about the ones now being used, manipulated

As a tool to gain power?

Those about homosexuality

 

Are we sure (in the first place) we know why?

Perhaps those rules were not so much about loving, monogamous relationships

as about a sexuality that was predatory, abusive

about rape, pederasty

the abuse of sex

 

Of course, THAT is wrong.

Just as it is wrong for any form of sex to be

Predatory, abusive, or forced

 

And we know they did not know, that there IS a gender spectrum

Brain imaging and studies of chromosomes and more

Suggest variety

Perhaps what was confusing is not so confusing now?

 

It is no secret that we pick and choose

Dropping some, Obsessing over others

 

It is also true that we “use” the rules

To control, to gain power (even political power),

And suppress and even oppress

 

That we use them to punish and control

 

Jesus turned the concept of law upside down.

It is not the law, imposed from without by the righteous powerful

that makes us God’s people

 

it is a law of love, written by the Spirit on our hearts

that makes us God’s people

Giving us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control 

 

against such things, there is no law

It is not a sin to be kind, gentle, patient, or loving

There is no sin of empathy

 

But to be the opposite

Cruel, harsh, controlling, and “not loving”

That probably is, sin

 

Alas and alack

It is confusing and sketchy.

 

So what do we do?

We filter all the rules through the filter of love

Because there really is only one law

One

 

Love

“Jesus said ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

 

He was even more blunt (John 13:34) “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

 

Paul (Romans 13:10) said, “Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”

 

I am sorry Lord, that we do not get it

Not very well

None of us

None

 

I am sorry when leaders use the law to gain loyalty

I am sorry when some deny the very existence of people you love

I am sorry when, as we try to figure it all out, we get it wrong

I am sorry when we use the rules as a weapon against people

 

Lord, teach us to love

Teach us to reject any way that is not love

Help us to take risks for the sake of love

So that if we err, and we will, we have erred on the side of love

 

The world is a right mess

We won’t get out of it by beating people over the head with a bible

We won’t get out of it through coercive control

We won’t get out of it by being retributive

 

There is only one way out.

 

We must follow the one law that counts the most

We must love

You, ourselves

And ALL others

 

 

 

Drawn to the light

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Magnetic fields draw us to Light; they move our limbs and thoughts

But it is still dark; if our hearts do not hold a lantern,

We will stumble over each other

 

Huddled beneath the sky

As we are

 

Rumi, as translated by Daniel Ladinski (Love Poems from God)

_________________________________

 

We are huddled in the dark.

those of us who love the light

it seems to have gone missing

 

our straining eyes see only a darkness

that grows,

if deep darkness can get any darker

 

desperately we search

everywhere, everywhere

for a spark, a glimmer

 

something that can reveal

a way

any way, forward

 

but the church windows are dark

the sky without stars or moon

it is always midnight, never dawn

 

but there is a secret only the hopeful know

 

there is light

if we will only turn inward

and look deep into souls shrouded with fear

 

when the veil is parted

we find that our hearts hold a lantern

that the One who is light and love

has a lit candle

in the deep darkness

that cannot be overcome

 

we carry the light

that should not, cannot be contained

but should shine

 

we can be the light

that reveals, guides, and comforts

we can be a light

for those who have lost the will to shine

 

the Light of the World

who lights our darkness

GodWithUs

 

says be light

rise, and shine

When my heart is desperate

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…there is a common core to feeling grateful:  we recognize a circumstance, event, or situation (even if it is a trial)  as a gift, we have received some unexpected benefit, we respond with words and actions, and we become our best selves in the process.  Gifts are not only pleasurable, but the right give at the right time can change us.

          Diana Butler Bass  Gratitude, HarperOne, 2018, p. 9

 

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

          Marcel Proust

 

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

          Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

___________________________________

 

Black, turning red to orange to blue,

the sun creeping slipping into the sky

kissing the mountain

pink snow

and gratitude

 

My brain woke ungrateful

no visions of sugarplums

just shadow and fire

a world burning

a leader, fearful, hateful

retributory and small

 

but God’s grandeur

flaming forth

a gift

 

there are so many gifts

if you look for them

 

the people who gather each Sunday morning

who with their hunger for sacred

their openness and faith

make my soul blossom

 

the cat, insistent bumping

the cold nose of my big-hearted dog child

the whinny of the geriatric mares

 

GodWithUs

ever-present saying do not fear

 

when my heart is desperate

when I am swimming in anxiety

the gift comes

a heart set free

 

 

Relentless Love

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Love relentlessly, she said,

and I want to slip these two words

into every cell in my body, not the sound

of the words, but the truth of them,

the vital, essential need for them,

until relentless love becomes

a cytoplasmic imperative,

the basic building block for every action.

Because anger makes a body clench.

Because fear invokes cowering, shrinking, shock.

I know the impulse to run, to turn fist, to hurt back.

I know, too, the warmth of cell-deep love—

how it spreads through the body like ocean wave,

how it doesn’t erase anger and fear,

rather seeds itself somehow inside it,

so even as I contract love bids me to open

wide as a leaf that unfurls in spring

until fear is not all I feel.

Love relentlessly

          Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Shared by Diana Butler Bass, The Cottage

_______________________________________

 

Love relentlessly

this is our call

we were made for this

 

for empathy and compassion

for welcome

 

we were made to take care of each other,

to walk each other home

otherwise, why are we here?

 

but is not easy to love when surrounded

by all the miseries of human creatures

as greed, and fear, and insecurity

ooze out of our pores

 

and eat away at love

like acid rain

persistent and unavoidable

 

we see injustice and inequity

iniquity too

we see the poor and the marginalized hurt

and we see the perpetrators

the predators

 

feasting

devouring resources and kindness

and love

 

and so comes anger

more than eager to slip into our souls

 

it is a conundrum

we are angry not because we hate but because we love

we love the refugee and the immigrant

the trans person who is told they don’t exist

the woman, the people of many colors who are told they are less

because they are not white

 

we see them marginalized and minimized

rejected and excluded

we sense the pain and the terror

 

and because we love

we get angry

and anger can become unrighteous

as it slides into the hot, brutal fire of hate

 

how do we love relentlessly

that which is not love

those who perpetrate injustice and cause so much pain?

 

I do not want to hate

nor do I want to walk through life with ears that do not hear

and eyes that do not see

 

I want to be both prophet and priest

I want to see the brokenness of the world

I want to be incapable of unseeing it

I want to feel the pain of injustice

and protest, loudly

 

but I need to do that without hating

those who are bragging and blaming

seeking to plunder and punish

consumed by the lust for power and wealth

 

how can I see beyond the abuse and cruelty

and find space in my heart for the child of God

who is in there, somewhere

and stay in the house of love?

 

only the One who loves me relentlessly

GodWithUs

can help here

 

I must let Sacred embrace me

consume me

I must know and feel that I am loved

relentlessly

by God

 

that is my only hope

as fragile as that might be

There is work to do

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The more we open our eyes,

the more the heart breaks.

Still, the invitation to open our eyes,

to choose to live broken heartedly,

as on this day when I hear again

of the greed and cruelty of humans

and the heart breaks and breaks

and I feel how it is in the breaking

the heart stays open.

On the windowsill, the amaryllis

has opened two enormous blooms of red

and I am so rich with the gift of it,

as if this one flower is teaching the heart

how to unfurl its lush petals

as it moves from tight bud

to spaciousness, dusting

the world around it with gold.

                     Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

___________________________________

 

I want to close my eyes

squeeze them tight and hope it all goes away

 

ah, if I could close off all my senses

so I do not have to smell the foul stench of burning homes

or hear the cries of the detained and deported

see the violence and injustice

 

taste the bitter draught of hate

 

it is an assault

my soul is abused

and I want to curl up, tightly

 

fingers in my ears

eyes shut

muttering muttering muttering

no, no, no, no, no, no

 

but there is work to do

people to be helped

words to be spoken

 

I am called to unfurl

to stand

and shine brightly

 

like the One who came

who saw, experienced, and felt it all

and yet

kept his heart open

and had his body broken open and his blood poured out

by the malign forces of this world

 

I must stay broken open

the light leaking out of my cracked soul

opposing, resisting as best I can

the darkness of fear

the coldness of enmity

 

may I be rich

in love

 

may I be sanctuary

compassion, mercy

and blessing

 

may I, like a fragile ray of sun

filtered by the trees,

dust the world around me

with the light

of Sacred love

Thy Kingdom come

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the Kingdom of God

the Kingdom of Heaven

the Kingdom is near

at hand

within reach

 

it is the treasure we reach for

rather than hope for

it is the reality we live into being

 

we think we understand kingdom

kingdoms come through power

they conquer

and dominate and control

 

they are willing to do anything to grow

anything

others

 

brutality is a tool

intimidation and humiliation too

making others less

marginalizing and minimizing

expelling, eradicating

 

I am thinking of kingdoms today

the kingdom of earth

the kingdom of America

 

ruled by shaped by

what?

 

not God

not love, justice, and joy

 

we see the kingdom of earth personified

in one swathed in scandal

unrestrained, unaccountable

one with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket

and what he can put over on a kingdom

of the angry and resentful

the fearful

who embrace and cheer

 

Thy kingdom come!

what can I do today

how can I reach out and help pull it into being

 

that kingdom shaped by self-giving and sacrifice

through compassion and reconciliation

a kingdom that seeks to serve

protect all (all)

 

on this day when the Kingdom of Love

seems out of reach

fading, disintegrating beneath the weight

of hate and ego

 

let us reach for the kingdom,

and each other