All is grey

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All is grey

Searching for meaning in this

Meaningless day

Praying for meaning

 In the meaninglessness

Of this meaningless mess

          Padráig Ó Tuama (readings from the book of exile)

_____________________________

 

I want to make sense of it all

But it doesn’t make sense

 

It seems as though Jesus was pretty clear

His teachings accessible

To even the most obtuse of us

 

Be not afraid

Imitate me

Forgive each other

 

Easy, not easy

Simple, not simple

 

Just ask me

For I am afraid

American evangelicalism

MAGA

And Trump terrify me

 

Not on my account (so much)

As for the vulnerable

The poor, the queer, the outcast

The stranger in our midst

 

Having a government dedicated to rejection

Exclusion

Humiliation

Punishment

Is pretty damn scary

 

It is even more frightening that American Christians

Somehow

Embrace this

And rationalize away their betrayal of Jesus

(for that is what it is)

 

It is, of course, all about fear

At the heart of it

Fear that they (those people who are brown)

Will become the majority (hence the lust for deportation)

Fear that our white culture of privilege

Will be eroded

That we will no longer completely control the narrative

 

The belief that “we” are being attacked

By “them”

 

Right-wing American Church, the dominant version

Enshrined in mega auditoriums and

Small country sanctuaries

Aging and sparse

Is literally a Church of Fear

 

Where is the “imitation of Jesus?”

The humility?

The servant stance?

Where is welcome?

The compassion and kindness?

The desire to unite and heal?

 

Where is forgiveness?

Above all

Where is forgiveness?

 

Buried it seems

Beneath resentment and a desire

For retribution

A burning desire to dominate and conquer

And to punish

 

Where, O where is love?

 

I cannot make sense of this

The overwhelming tsunami

of racism and brutality

The violation of Jesus

 

The embrace of cruelty

The acceptance of bullying and lying

The lust for power

 

What I do

And say

Seems meaningless

Vanity

(Vanity, vanity all is vanity)

 

My voice is lost in the wind

My actions ineffectual

 

But still, I feel called to trust

Not Trust Trump

But trust the God of Love

 

And trusting

Seek to be not afraid

And to imitate Jesus

And to forgive, yes, even those who have embraced MAGA

(not easy at this point)

 

And above all, love my neighbor

Above all

Love