Today we burn last year’s Palm Sunday palms
for tomorrow’s ashes.
Our praise is fickle, our righteousness thin.
Our faith is steadfast, and also fake.
Our beliefs are unsteady, and often turn on us.
Our knowledge is in part; sometimes that’s the part that kills.
Poets write life-giving verses with poison ink.
Prophets rail against injustice with bloody hands.
Even our prayers are sinful. They often forget us. Or God.
And sometimes our mistakes are full of grace and truth.
We trust the divine dance of our fallibility
and the One who redeems it.
The ignorant are confident, oblivious, and frantic.
The wise doubt their wisdom and are at peace.
Burn our praise, then, God, and from the ashes
raise up a people shriven, forgiven, ready to repent.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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