Jesus of the Truth-telling

This is a prayer that comes after the Act of Re-Membering workshop some of us participated in this past week.  In it we heard stories and we embodied stories of real Canadians from history, and from today-often in their own documented words.   That we, every single people group, are capable of prejudice and of bias is no surprise to anyone – but add power – add institutions and systems that determine the exact ways some people can flourish or not – that is systemic racism.  And its alive and well.  Its a heart issue and a will issue, a personal issue and a cultural issue and it is very hard to talk about when some of God’s beloved have benefitted from the system and some of God’s beloved have not.

But all is not ever lost.  And so we pray.  And we do not give up on meeting with one another.  And we tell better, truer, fuller stories and pay attention to what happens in the listening.

Jesus of the Truthtelling

The truth of stories
is in the in-between and in the all-together.
Where we tell stories of bodies
and land. And grandmothers.
Stories of houses raised and houses razed.

The truth of the story
is in the names we can’t pronounce.
And the way we look to each others’
eyes when we are not sure.

The truth of this story
is that we forgot what You
do with power.

And it is not what we did.
Not what we Do.

And yet,
You are
not afraid
of the in-betweens.
And the way you know,
like your own hand,
like your very word,
the land, the bodies, the grandmothers
and every house….
well….that is the yes
we long for.

Truthtelling Jesus in the Room,
Don’t let go.

And Don’t let us stay
here.
And do not let us tarry any longer
In a story that does not
Re-member the voice who calls it all
Good.