Rev. Bruce shares two powerful examples of courageous people of faith speaking truth to power in the name of Jesus:
Rep AOC's Speech on Personal Faith at Admin's Religious Liberties Assault on LGBTQ Rights
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's courageous sermon pleading for mercy for the fearful
Full sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwaEuDeqM8
And a marvellous and timely poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (download pdf below)
BECAUSE
So I can’t save the world—
can’t save even myself,
can’t wrap my arms around
every frightened child, can’t
foster peace among nations,
can’t bring love to all who
feel unlovable.
So I practice opening my heart
right here in this room and being gentle
with my insufficiency. I practice
walking down the street heart first.
And if it is insufficient to share love,
I will practice loving anyway.
I want to converse about truth,
about trust. I want to invite compassion
into every interaction.
One willing heart can’t stop a war.
One willing heart can’t feed all the hungry.
And sometimes, daunted by a task too big,
I tell myself what’s the use of trying?
But today, the invitation is clear:
to be ridiculously courageous in love.
To open the heart like a lilac in May,
knowing freeze is possible
and opening anyway.
To take love seriously.
To give love wildly.
To race up to the world
as if I were a puppy,
adoring and unjaded,
stumbling on my own exuberance.
To feel the shock of indifference,
of anger, of cruelty, of fear,
and stay open. To love as if it matters,
as if the world depends on it.
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
from The Unfolding (Wildhouse Publishing, 2024)
