Refugees

Lest we forget:

Jesus was a refugee.

Joseph and Mary, compelled

to travel-- poor and pregnant,

and unannounced—to Bethlehem,

where (no doubt) the people

(not just the innkeeper)

balked at this influx of

tired and dirty arrivals.

Who could feed and house

and clothe them all?

But one man offered them his barn…

Threatened even there,

they fled to Egypt where

other people looked at them

askance.

Living is not easy on the run:

no money, no shelter,

nowhere to go but forward,

nothing to swallow

but your pride.

Refugees.

And  today, we celebrate

in our warm and well-fed way

one refugee who taught us

how to treat the less-fortunate.

Yet, we lavish gifts upon ourselves

and ignore the faces at the window,

ignore his counsel,

ignore the need and hunger,

the cold and the homeless,

bleating out our “Merry Christmas”es

not knowing

what that means.

If Only

If only we were led by stars,

or had angels to direct our course;

if we could bear our burdens

like the patient donkey;

be tended like a shepherd’s sheep…

If only there were heavenly hosts

to calm our fears…

Maybe an innkeeper to rail at,

or a Herod to blame for all that’s wrong

in our sad and sinful lives,

it might be easier to be a Christian.

And yet, at this season,

God gives us

(as if we asked)

stars and shepherds,

angels’ songs,

even His Son

as scapegoat for our sins,

but….

we are the same, for all that,

waiting glumly for those stars and angels,

enveloped in our fears,

never looking

at the sky.

Prayer for Christmas

All I want for all the world

as Christmas gifts this year --

Peace not war

Love not hate

Hope not fear

Wisdom not ignorance

Strength not weakness

Unity not separation

Homes not crowded camps

Health not sickness

Food not hunger

Help not humiliation

Friends not enemies

Families not orphans

Doctors not soldiers

Smiles not tears

  

Not tomorrow.

Now.

November 1

One week left of a presidential campaign that is anything but presidential. It casts into sharp relief the dignity of the presidents we’ve had—from Washington to Obama: men who knew the weight of the office and the respect it should command. They lived up to the honor—for the most part—and gave us something to be proud of.  
Not this time. Seemingly endless muck and mire, flung helter-skelter, indiscriminate as a cafeteria food-fight. All are dirtied simply by being in the room. Truth depends on where you sit: there are no standards of behavior, no higher ground, no respect. We are all brawling in the mud; we are turning into animals. Everyone is flawed. That should be the first assumption. Mistakes are made. But then we move on. No recriminations, no clinging to every misstep and miscalculation. No resurrection of each and every nanosecond of public and private behavior. How did we get here, how did we fall so far?
Power. Anger. Fear. In pursuit of the first, mobilizing the others, dividing the country into us and them, making us enemies of each other. Is this what civil war is? This is not the right way; this is not the American way.. are we moving inevitably toward that division or will it end November 8?
I don’t think next Tuesday will resolve the issue. The genie has been released from the bottle. Violence, intolerance and fear are moving like black shadows through every stratum of our society. It’s not the white nationalists or the Tea Party or the NRA or the Klan or the far right or liberal left, the uneducated, the elitists, the political machines, the pundits, or the just plain ignorant who are out there agitating for change. There are liars and spin doctors and deliberate misinterpretations everywhere.
It’s not simply good vs. evil; there’s some of both on each side, whether we want to admit it or not. No single person can right what is wrong with the country. No single person can give us the instant gratification we expect. We all need to take the long view, take a step back ( a VERY LONG step) that would give us the perspective we have so happily relinquished. We are all in this together, whether we approve of each other’s choices or not. No matter what happens a week from now, we will stand or fall on our ability to hold to the system of checks and balances on which our government was based.
At the risk of offending someone—perhaps everyone—God help us all.