"Confession"

I had posted this poem (on MySpace and Facebook) that I wrote for a class on Evangelism: Issues in Church Renewal, and just felt drawn to it again today...after two days where my experience of the church was less than what I think God calls the church to be (and perhaps the same could apply to seminaries), I thought I would revisit it and share it with others:

"Confession"

O God our great Creator,
We can’t believe the fuss;
That you forgave our many sins,
By sending your Son to us.

When all the work was finished,
And Christ arose not dead or still;
We pledged to you our allegiance,
Our hearts, our minds, and our will.

You simply wouldn’t leave us,
Alone and set adrift;
Instead you gave your Spirit,
To dwell here in our midst.

On that great day of Pentecost,
You gave birth to your church;
I have to ask if you’re surprised,
To find it in such a lurch.

We look around the world today,
And we can’t believe the mess;
What happened to the Church you birthed,
O how we’ve failed to bless.

Forgive us God, we earnestly pray;
For all the ways we’ve gone astray.
Come Father, Son and Spirit too,
Breathe life into the Church anew.

We have failed to serve the needy,
The hungry and the poor;
We have acted mighty greedily,
Always grabbing more.

We have chased the growth of numbers,
Converting in your name;
All the while forgetting,
This isn’t just some game.

We’ve been called to love you wholly,
And our neighbor as our self;
But our love is rather dusty,
Just sitting on the shelf.

We have acted as professionals,
Pastors where we stand;
But we’ve failed to follow servingly,
The Master in the sand.

We have run the church as business,
Forgetting who’s in charge;
Proclaiming gospel messages,
That make us rather large.

We have said one thing,
While doing another;
We have hurt our sisters,
And judged our brothers.

We have proclaimed on billboards
The internet and cable;
That we have open hearts and doors
Yet some still close their table.

Forgive us God, we earnestly pray;
For all the ways we’ve gone astray.
Come Father, Son and Spirit too,
Breathe life into the Church anew.

I pray that both our understanding and expression of the church becomes radically altered.

Russell