Tag: John the Baptist

Advent Day 4: Prepare ye…

Ah God
Lord Almighty
Creator of all things

I love the art of an unspecified pronoun
When it is said
Prepare Ye the way of the Lord
the implication is perhaps us

But, maybe not–maybe it is you who is preparing
Or maybe it is a Ye/We kind of thing
A royal you, an authorial you
One where the narrator says Ye–but means everyone

Because you know, I know. God
Not how to straighten paths, knock down mountain
or exalt any mountains
And though accessibility is totally my thing
literally, physically and spiritually
(Prepare Ye, can you hear the echo in your soul?)

I have a feeling the Kin-dom will
change the landscapes in ways I’ve not yet dreamed

All I know God is that I am not prepared
We think preparations are one thing
(money, power, war)
And from the way you entered the world
and the way I feel the echoes of Preparation in my heart..

You are the one who is going to have to lay the groundwork
Prepare Ye
the way
of the
Lord

A Prayer for Healing A Brood of Vipers

God the whole world is sick

No one is safe anymore–

there is no sanctuary.

You know that we are a world in desperate need of healing.

God I don’t want to live in a world

where healthcare is on the bottom of the to do list

Where people aren on the bottom of the to do list.

And God, I want to scream like John the Baptist:

You brood of vipers, you idiots, you fools!

Turn around! Change!

Don’t you want to be on Side that has already won?!?*

Don’t you know there is another way to win?

One where we don’t fight over scraps,

but we care for everyone?

One where we don’t say, “Did they have any pre-exisitng conditions”

but instead we say “don’t worry we will protect, you, and feed you, and care for you!”

And like John the Baptist, and Desmond Tutu, and bell hooks and so many others–

I want to hold you accountable,

because in the end,

God wants us all to heal.

At the end of the long day of work,

When the sun sets and we look around to see who has healed–from hunger and racism and every single kind of bigotry, and Covid

I want to be there, and I want to see you there too.

I want to party with you in the Kin-dom.

God almighty knows it.

God you know we need this healing–

teach us how to hold each other accountable

without screaming or shaming one another,

teach us grace and forgiveness and reconciliation.

Teach us I pray,

because Lord knows, we could all use a party right now.

Amen.

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

*This is a question that the great Healer Archbishop Desmond Tutu used to reconcile and convert and people (with way less anger I’m sure than it is used here).