Poem- Understanding Through Division

I just recently had the incredible honor of speaking at the annual conference for the Church of the Brethren. My focus was on seeking understanding through divisive differences. Although my message was for the context of the church, my hope was to speak to division in all contexts. My final words were this poem:

Dear Annual Conference

Dear loved, feeling unloved, heard, feeling unheard

Dear Brethren

We gather

Broken, Breaking, or Seemingly Unshatterable

We gather

Together

Seeking

What

Dear Lord, do you know?

All I know is

It's alright to be angry.

It's alright to be anxious.

It's alright to admit we are broken.

Broken is not banished.

Broken is ready to be remade.

Sorry means you won't do it again.

But it's difficult to make promises when

feeling unheard

feeling unloved

feeling enraged

because Brethren

means something different to me and to you yet

means so much to us.

We have all broken

each other at one point or another.

Because when we are broken,

our jagged edges catch and tear the ones who stand closest.

Dear Annual Conference

Dear Sisters and Brothers

There is time to be tired.

There is time to be at the end of our ropes-

holding and holding and holding

Onto what

Dear Lord, do you know?

All I know is

There is time-

A time for every matter or purpose under heaven.

A time for loving the least of these-

Which is who?

Is it I, Lord?

Is it my neighbor?

Is it my enemy?

Is it those without food?

Or those without hope?

Is it the underpaid?

Or the overlooked?

When we break bread together,

will we learn to know you better?

Or will we sit stiffly,

repeating a ritual,

mistaking common action for community,

rather than reaching

for your spirit in this place?

Dear Annual Conference

Dear Brethren

Can we sense the holiness?

Can we cast our nets over the chasm?

Can we bridge the divide?

Can separation become solidarity?

If we all love the least of these,

the goats become sheep.

Do you see the hope in that?

Let us lament.

Let us love.

Let it be so.