This week marked the third 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
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. Instead,
I read it for the first time a year later at the Tree of Life Coffee House
at the church. The poem
also referenced other ugly, hateful episodes the same
week.
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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