November 6, 2010 Kingdom Come
Like fools we prayed, “Your Kingdom come” knowing not for what we asked.
Because when your Kingdom came, it landed like a meteorite, a bright light bursting our shadows.
Shell-schocked we scrambled but there’s no place to hide.
What did we ask for?
Not: loving our enemies or confessing our sins,
not showing grace or letting love win.
Not bearing burdens that never were our own,
not pulling up roots where bitterness had grown.
We asked for polite poetry that waits for our permission to speak, a beautiful legend, a private faith.
But You’ve brought us troubling prose, full of order and authority, full of command not compromise, no negotiation, just assimilation.
No legends here -
your Kingdom comes in real tears
falling down real faces
and there are no
private places.
Break your heart life will, and Kingdom lets the blood spill
in white rooms filled with strangers: this is public testimony, your pride will burn.
Your Kingdom of grace is a threat to our illusions -
step up she says and admit where you’ve fooled us -
saying you’re something you’re not.
Give me your masks that make your souls rot.
Our faces drop at the sight of our sins,
we’d shut you out, but you’re far too in.
Hurting and fuming, we curse our prayers -
we prayed Kingdom come,
but now take your Kingdom back.
This is the pain of souls pierced by light, souls set right.
After a while, you bring us to morning, to the meteor burnt marks in our front lawns.
Never mind our kicking and screaming, our hurting and bleeding, gone are the old days -
your Kingdom is here to stay.
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