Note—This week marks the second anniversary of the mass
murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018. I was asked to do the Chalice Lighting at the
Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry, which may have
felt a special kinship with a congregation of the same name, the next day. The
topic for the morning was sanctuary. I
threw away what I had carefully prepared.
I was planning on reading this new poem instead which was totally
inadequate to the situation but due to a scheduling mix up, I didn’t read it
that day. As you will see the poem also
references other ugly, hateful episodes the same week but current outrages
could easily be plugged in.
Sanctuary in a
Very Bad Week
Headlines:
Trump Attempts
to Erase Transgender Identity
Two Blacks
Killed at Walmart by Angry Racist
14 Bombs Sent to
Targets Denounced by Trump
11 Dead at Tree
of Life Synagogue Mass Murder
Sacred shelter—A
haven offered or sought,
a holy obligation and a desperate resort.
The Church once
offered it to those fleeing
the wrath of a king or war lord.
Today we are
called to offer it to
immigrants and refugees,
the homeless and unwanted,
the despised of color, gender,
faith,
abused women and families,
all the wretched.
Know
this—Sanctuary can fail.
Ask Thomas Becket, Ann Frank,
the four little Girls of Birmingham,
the frozen bum,
the murdered wife,
the deported asylum seeker,
the immigrant children in cages,
the dead Jews of Tree of Life.
But failure does
not cancel hope or duty.
time to step up,
to take our chances,
to become a People of Sanctuary.
—Patrick
Murfin
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