A PALMER’S PRAYER FOR ALL SAINT’S DAY, 2023

With palm branch in my hand, I went in the world,

Crying words of hoped for salvation,

“Hosanna, Lord, save us, I am a sinner among sinners

And cannot free myself. Hosanna! Lord, have mercy.”

And the Roman soldiers came, and the power of Rome came down;

And people died and people cried, and the earth shook and broke wide open.”

Wipe away every tear from our eyes and lead us to the waters of life.

And we waited; with bated breath, we waited.

 

With a song of hope in my heart, I went into the world,

Among the people without number, singing praises,

“Amen! Blessings and glory, and wisdom and thanksgiving, and honor and power and might be to God.

And lives, for entertainment, were lost, in coliseums.

And people died and we cried, and we washed our battle robes in the blood of vengeance,

Calling it white, and calling it right, and calling it satisfaction.

Wipe away every tear from our eyes and lead us to the waters of life.

And we waited; with bated breath, we waited.

 

With reforming words in my mouth, I went into the world,

Proclaiming the liberty of God’s undeserved love for the people;

And the people argued, and they fought, and they chose self-determining power.

The lamb was chased from the field and butchered to eat for soldiers

Who sailed to foreign shores, there people to enslave,

To rape and pillage in the power of the cruciform sword.

Wipe away every tear from our eyes and lead us to the waters of life.

And we waited; with bated breath, we waited.

 

With songs of New Jerusalem on my lips, I went into the world,

And became a thief and a murderer, finding ways to see people as less than human;

Here we fought Europe’s wars on their foreign shores

And possessed the lands of the unknowing vanquished,

Declaring our freedom, while buying and selling the freedom of others;

And they died and they cried as we profited from their labors and land.

Wipe away every tear from our eyes and lead us to the waters of life.

And we waited; with bated breath, we waited.

 

With a song of protest and a dream, I went into the world,

Acknowledging my white demagoguery, seeking peace,

Hoping to overcome some day the sins

 of prejudice, hate, and dispossession;

And from the streets, we heard, “They will not replace us.”

Then, with flag and cross, social covenants tottered.

Wipe away every tear from our eyes and lead us to the waters of life.

And we waited; with bated breath, we waited.

 

With a song of lament, I went into the world,

Remembering those who have died in the name of power,

In the lie of empire, fearing and hating what they cannot understand:

That the poor in spirit are a blessing,

That peacemakers engage the kingdom of heaven,

That mourning can lead to laughter in God’s justice.

Wipe away every tear from our eyes and lead us to the waters of life.

And we waited, with bated breath, we waited.

 

With no words for a song, I go into the world,

Hearing the silence of the dead in Ukraine, the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh,

The thousands of Israelis, Palestinians—Christians and Muslims,

And those who will die from gun violence today.

And I’m thinking that maybe waiting is not helpful.

Maybe it is time to do something for Christ’s sake.

Wipe away every tear from our eyes and lead us to the waters of life.

That we might live and act, in word and deed, with you for peace.