Wednesday, September 25, 2013

9-24-13 Tuesday Prayer (a day late): More Than This...

Tuesday Prayer for 9/24/13: More than this...

Inspired by Jeremiah 32:13a, 6-15; Luke 16:19-31; and Seamus Heaney

One: Is this really what we have?  This land this land soaked with waste and short-sightedness?  This land paved over with parking lots and roadways?  This land that we fight and kill over?  There must be...
Many: ...more than this.
One:  Is this really what we have?  These people soaked with violence and greed?  These people used and abused by those who are addicted to power and wealth?  These people who fight and kill each other?  There must be...
Many: ...more than this.
One:  Is this really what we have?  These souls soaked with cowardice and grandiosity?  These souls broken and crushed and twisted and cold?  These souls lost and forgotten?  There must be...
Many: ...more than this.
One:  There must be...
Many: ...more than this.
One:  There must be...
Many: ...more than this.
One:  There must be more than this...  There is that water, air and decay that heals that land and makes way for the life that was sleeping; waiting; that tree that breaks through the pavement and makes it dirt again; the peace that is stronger than the green things that break through and make the cracks in the sidewalk.  There is...
Many: ...more than this.
One:  We are that people through whom flows hope and commitment; the people who rise up on a great warm wind and are set free from that which burdens us; the people who create peace and give shape to justice.  There is...
Many: ...more than this.
One:  We have these souls that, although sometimes painfully bent, cannot break; souls that are fed by courage and give birth to life; souls connected to the source of all souls and great love; souls that always - always - are closer to more beginnings than endings.  There is...
Many: ...more than this.
One: That rumble is not the end.  That rumble is not the end.  That rumble is grace and hope and love and peace and forgiveness and freedom and emerging like a belly laugh from deep within God.
 "History says, don't hope on this side of the grave.
All: But then, once in a lifetime, the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme."
One: This may be that time.  Right now.  This very moment.
All: (Silence)
One: Let all God's people say..
All: (loudly) Amen!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Tuesday Prayer for 9/17/13: Gravity


Inspired by 1st Timothy 2:1-7

So, this is what I say;
Let them fall.
Let them fall.
Let them fall, fail, fly and flee.

Let me push,
when need be.

Gravity has a way of
catching

up;
Of strengthening when being denied,
Of opening herself up and saying
"Come. 
Rest here.  
Come sit with the rest of us.
You have not died.

You have not died.
Yet."

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Tuesday Prayer for 9-3-13: Searing




Dear God;

There are images I
can
not
get out of my head:

these cocoons
shrouded in white
in an endless line...

some are heartbreakingly small
some faces tinged blue
same faces forever afraid

these cocoons
shrouded in white
in an endless line...

again

This is what always happens when
Missiles are launched or
Food is denied or
Plague comes or
Bullets fly or
Bombs explode or
(                         or)

these cocoons
shrouded in white
in an endless line...

As these things go,
as they always seem to go,
as there is a response to the outrage
(that will create outrage)
after the missiles fly
we
see
pictures
of

these cocoons
shrouded in white
in an endless line...

We do not end it
By adding to it but...
We do not know how to end it
Or we refuse to, at least.
The arch of the fist is already in motion.
It has momentum.
It has momentum.

(The other night I had a dream or
maybe it was just a vision of
these cocoons
shrouded in white
in an endless line...
As the sun warmed them
one of them began to move
and the shroud began to rip
and I was afraid
until this child, this beautiful child,
stood up,
wiped her eyes like in the morning and
stretched her arms back like new wings
and laughed with death fracturing joy and
as she did
these cocoons
shrouded in white
in an endless line...
Shuddered.

The sky was torn open by the sound of
death shrouds
ripping and
death fracturing laughter made the earth rumble
and waken those long buried.

And we joined them, we all joined them,
and empires melted
and dictators relented
and hunger was forgotten
and the missiles turned to dust
and plague was healed
and the gas dissipated
and the guns were put in the graves of the once buried

There was laughter everywhere
There was laughter everywhere
There was laughter everywhere)

Amen.