A Good Friday Message from Dean Moore
Dear Beloved Community,
As Christians traverse Holy Week and Jews honor Passover, we travel in the unfamiliar landscape of the coronavirus, marked by waiting. I offer the poem below as a meditation on waiting – full-bodied and full-spirited waiting. May this Holy season be a Holy journey for you and yours, and may the time of waiting awaken you to God and the tiny sure glimpses of God’s Spirit breathing life into our suffering human family.
“Waiting in a Coronavirus World”
Waiting
Waiting for the pain to begin,
Waiting for the pain to end,
Waiting and knowing how many lives
Are suffering and will suffer
Dying in lonely isolation
Living in worry and fear,
Waiting and knowing that God is with us and for us,
Yet we wait …
Angry waiting
Angry that people with Asian faces are persecuted, even killed,
Angry that the death toll falls hardest on African American lives,
Angry that unprotected health care workers face dangers every day,
Angry that people in service industries have to risk their lives
so others can access food and basic needs.
Sick-and-tired waiting
Tired of unresponsive public leaders and unconcerned citizens,
Tired of mindless interference with public leaders who boldly seek to respond,
Tired of political competition in place of compassionate cooperation,
Tired of blame in the place of shame and action,
Tired of profiteers who endanger lives for their own reward.
Hopeful waiting
Hoping for deliverance from slavery, as recounted in Passover meals,
Hoping to escape the crucifixion story
and the terrible memories of disciples deserting Jesus
and the wretched awareness that we too desert Jesus –
Jesus in the poor, Jesus in our loved ones, Jesus in migrants,
prisoners, persons living on the streets, and neighbors
who have lost their jobs or health, even their lives.
Memory-filled waiting
Memories of Hebrew people delivered from slavery,
Memories of Jesus whose radical love cost him his life,
and disciples who loved Jesus but deserted him anyway,
Memories of Jesus who faced a last supper, a trial, an angry mob, and death,
Who died on a cross pleading “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”[i]
And yet forgave a thief on a nearby cross
and commended his spirit to God;
And memories of Jesus lying in a tomb
While people waited in despair!
And now we wait for Easter … waiting in silence and grief, reaching toward hope …
Seeking ways to focus on what is truly important,
Seeking ways to hold and care for others,
to treasure acts of kindness and courage,
Seeking in silence and prayer
and in the active giving of love on this uncharted trail
toward healing and justice and wholeness.
In this Holy season, may your waiting be touched by the Holy
who loves you beyond all bounds!
Blessings,
Mary Elizabeth Moore
[i] Mt. 27:46, NRSV.