A REMEMBRANCE IN AMERICA

Olsburg United Methodist Church in Olsburg, Kansas

A REMEMBRANCE IN AMERICA

​The answers run deep
they have not changed since
I was a child, but I have changed
across all the years
I am older now, and
my father, now more than the 
memories left dwelling within me
taught us that we must ask
the right questions in life
to reveal whatever truth
is seeking its place within the world
I am sitting in a church pew
listening to his voice, speaking
out as an affirmation of life
and as a prophet, in a prophetic voice
in the voice of Amos or Hosea
we are more than we know
if only we could see one another
more clearly, there are
too many people speaking
their own harsh truths today
and falsehoods run riot
across the landscape of
an America we thought
we knew, and now don’t
recognize in the rhetoric
of these times
we have forgotten what
we once knew, or chosen
to forget our own history
the revisionists want to win
and it is up to us to stop them
this is the truth of Christ
he both conserved and liberated
at the same time to challenge
the powers that be, and what
followed was the crucifixion
it does not end there of course
what we have forgotten, what
we are forgetting is that
on Easter morning there
was a resurrection and once
you know and see this
your whole worldview changes
it changes forever, we must
each walk the road to Emmaus
and break bread with one another
we are not our deepest fears or enmity
we are not the hostility and hate we fear
we are something more
found not in the flesh
but in the Spirit flowing within
praying in and with and through us
even when we have forgotten
how to pray on our own
this is what we must remember
and celebrate in our
remembrance of Christ
celebrating Easter everywhere

Ron Starbuck © 2020 from New Poems