Not again

“Let your soul receive this rest: The God who sends thunder and lightning seeks to obliterate every system that threatens the dignity and shalom of the cosmos. Accept what mercy is available after what we’ve made of this precious, sacred world–what we’ve made of one another. In all our greed, our deceit, our apathy, our moral deficiencies, may the divine forgive us, and work so that every injustice would at last be made right. Amen.”
~ Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies

May we rise up, hands of God, feet of God,
against the injustices raining down.
May we reach out, hearts of God, tongues of God,
to bring healing and mercy to the oppressed.
May we not avert our eyes any longer,
eyes of God, ears of God.

As we flounder and flop, unsure of how to move forward,
May we find the divine welling up within us,
Love of God, love of God, love of God.

Courage dear heart.

For Earth’s Grandsons
Stand tall, no matter your height, how dark your skin
Your spirit is all colors within
You are made of the finest woven light
From the iridescent love that formed your mothers, fathers
Your grandparents all the way back on the spiral road–
There is no end to this love
It has formed your bodies
Feeds your bright spirits
And no matter what happens in these times of breaking–
No matter dictators, the heartless, and liars
No matter–you are born of those
Who kept ceremonial embers burning in their hands
All through the miles of relentless exile
Those who sang the path through massacre
All the way to sunrise
You will make it through–

~ Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise, 2019

We have committed genocide before, right here on this land. Power and greed quietly wielded their weapons of supremacy, loudly proclaimed divine sovereignty, and commenced the systematic erasure of a people and a culture, the very caretakers of the land to be conquered.

It has happened here. More than once.

It can happen again.

It is underway.

We’ve yet to even make reparations for the last time we destroyed a people (many peoples), and we are already repeating history. Not for the first time. Not for the last. Until we find the truth of Who God Is, we will keep using him as an excuse to look down on, and eventually eliminate, everyone different from us.

Every life is sacred, and so very many are under fire today. Under fire from the highest office in this newly acquired land. Under fire in all the same ways, familiar and haunting, nothing new under the sun.

Savages. Less than human. Uncivilized. Abominations. Inferior.

Black. Gay. Foreign. Mentally Ill. Brown. Old. Immigrant. Native. Resource. Trans. Poor. Different. Female. Illegal.
Wrong. Unequal. Drains. Unworthy. Lost. Sinful. Broken. Weak. Condemned. Evil. Threats.
(Savages. Less than human. Uncivilized. Abominations. Inferior.)

It all amounts to the same:
Less Than.

This. Is. Not. God.

“I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson: to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.”
~ Mohondas K. Gandhi

As we flounder and flop, unsure of how to move forward,
May we find the divine welling up within us,
Love of God, love of God, love of God.

Courage dear heart.

“Go with heads bowed, in humility toward all you have done and not done to protect every living thing. May you be sewn into the complicated tapestry of oppressed and oppressor, knowing you are more than one thing. May you march and write and sing and educate and use what power you have to call forth justice. And may you contend daily with all the ways the curse still dwells in the hidden parts of you, that you would be a person of constant searching, self-honesty, confession, and forgiveness. Amen.”
~ Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies

Time to love LOUDER.

5calls.org. Pop on over and start making some phone calls; they can’t make it any easier.

Your representatives are listening. When enough of us flood their lines with indignation at their actions they know that their re-election is in jeopardy and change is possible despite their terrible politics. Encourage the leaders who are fighting for love and human decency. Demand better of the leaders who are fighting for more power, more money, more hatred and more oppression. If you’re not sure which is which, it’s time to do some homework.