Word:
When I popped open Facebook today, I saw this note from Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey: My personal resistance to piss poor reporting: Not reading any articles that normalize white supremacy and racism by using "alt-right." What a great idea! And something we should all be aware of. "Alt-right" is the movement for white supremacy and racist normalization. It is an abomination.
I know many people right now that are talking about resistance activities. We saw the safety pin movement develop as a sign of resistance. A resistance poetry wall has developed at 100 Thousand Poets for Peace. I know organizations that are preparing to shelter in place immigrants or refugees.
Resistance is taking many forms. And yet, I hear the echoes of Borg sentiment from Star Trek, "Resistance is futile." And yet, the Borg were defeated at a cost of many lives and at great pain.
Sometimes, I think the biggest act of resistance for vulnerable populations is simply continued survival. Continued loving kindness. Continued life.
Yesterday, our act of resistance in Tukwila was feeding the homeless, hanging out with the food insecure, and watching Harry Potter. Along with the mayor of Tukwila, a bunch of youth from a local boy scout troop, and many volunteers. All at my little church.
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What is your personal act of resistance?
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Today's practice brings music and a video from our dinner last night, a poem from Anna Kamienska, along with a sacred quote from Walt Whitman. Along with readings from the Jewish and Christian lectionaries, the Qur'an, and the Buddhist tradition. And as always, we have our BIBOLOVE practice from Soyinka Rahim. (BIBO = Breathe In, Breathe Out). Our prayers for this week focus on Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea.
Onward!
Links:
Safety Pin movement article: http://www.thewrap.com/why-safety-pins-symbolize-resistance-a-short-explainer/
Resistance Poetry Wall: http://www.100tpcmedia.org/100TPC2012/2016/11/resistance-poetry-wall-100-thousand-poets-for-change-2017/
Opening:
Let my heart rise up to meet mercy, my voice to meet compassion, my hands to meet action.
BIBOLOVE: Breath In, Breath Out--shhh
Music:
Music courtesy of iPhone. Thanksgiving at Riverton Park UMC.
Readings
Gratitude is a Homeless, Scattered Love by Anna Kamienska
A tempest threw a rainbow in my face
so that I wanted to fall under the rain
to kiss the hands of an old woman to whom I gave my seat
to thank everyone for the fact that they exist
and at time even feel like smiling
I was grateful to young leaves that they were willing
to open up to the sun
to babies that they still
felt like coming into this world
to the old that they heroically
endure until the end
I was full of thanks
like a Sunday alms-box
I would have embraced death
if she’d stopped nearby
Gratitude is a scattered
homeless love
Anna Kamienska
Curated from: http://jimmcdermott.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-poem-for-thanksgiving-gratitude-is.html
Sacred Text
Jewish Daily Reading: Daily Study from Chabad
Christian Daily Reading: Revised Common Lectionary Daily Reading
Muslim Daily Reading: Daily Verse from The Only Quran
Buddhist Daily Reading: Daily Zen
Please bring your own sacred readings to the daily pattern. If there is something else you'd like to see, let me know!
Quotable
“Resist much, obey little.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Prayers:
Weekly prayer focus comes from the World Council of Churches prayer cycle. We know the world needs to be surrounded with prayer and positive thought. This allows us to work through the world country by country. We focus on one set of countries per week with the same prayer, lifting them up.
Focus countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea
Let us pray.
We know that we fail to live up to being makers of peace. Let us bring in rather than push out, be invitational rather than confrontational--seeing signs of life while decrying the desecration of hope.
For signs of hope and peace, we pray for
- The rainforest and its gift of oxygen, so the world can breathe.
- Mission schools providing learning and hope.
- Those who have the courage to fight corruption.
For the oppressed and weary, we pray for
- Political stability and freedom for the people in all of these countries.
- Those suffering from HIV and AIDS, and those who lack adequate health care.
- Those living at a subsistence level, and those who lack clean water and enough food.
- Monkeys and other animals that are threatened with extinction due to the destruction of their habitat.
For those we love, those we hate and those we are indifferent to
For the transformation from ME to WE
Let peace prevail on earth.
So may it be.
Lord’s Prayer:
Translation by Neil Douglas Klotz, Sufi
O Birther! Creator of the Cosmos,
Focus your light within us— make it useful:
Create your reign of unity now-
Your one desire then acts with ours,
as in all light, so in all forms.
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others’ guilt.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
the power and the life to do,
the song that beautifies all,
from age to age it renews.
Truly— power to these statements—
may they be the ground from which all
my actions grow: Amen.