When/Still/Yet/Until
When Sunday sun shines through the vapor
floating just beyond our sight
When the droplets bend the prisms
revealing rainbows in the light
When the children break the silence
as everybody prays
When the seasons change like paraments
marking all our days
When we stand before the font
water washed and Spirit born
When we taste the bread and wine
at the dawn on Easter morn
When we gather in our grief
singing resurrection songs
When we return to arms of God
a saint God’s all along
When we hear the benediction
and we turn and leave the nave
When we scatter into service
to the world Christ died to save
Still the promises ring hollow
Still it feels like God forsakes
Still the raw and honest prayers
yield only scorpions and snakes
Still all the declarations
feel so empty and untrue
Still even great commissions
seem for everyone but you
Still you hear sacred scripture
say you’re precious as a pearl
Still these promises fall silent
when our parish is our world
Still craftier than serpents
than gentle as the dove
Still abdicating mandates
to teach others how to love
Still they see the divine image
only in some other face
All while singing songs of freedom
and God’s amazing grace
Yet we still will pray the prayers
Yet we still will sing the songs
Yet we’ll bend the arc of justice
though the struggle, though it’s long
Yet we’ll see our maker’s mark
in every person’s face
Yet we’ll speak against theologies
which add conditions to God’s grace
Yet we’ll walk this narrow pathway
through this valley of dry bones
to where no one is excluded
and no one stands alone
Until there is nothing left to protest
Until there is nothing left to grieve
Until no one is forsaken
Until there is nothing to achieve
Until the weapons all fall silent
Until all the marches end
Until we till the soil with plowshares
Until there’s nothing to defend
Until they’re places at the table
in every church and home
Until justice flows like water
and all know God’s shalom
Until these ashes turn to ashes
Until our dust returns to dust
Until our lives are placed in wounded hands
of all we know and trust
Until the whole of God’s salvation
children ransomed from the fall
live side by side in perfect peace
and know that all means all.
Doug Forrester is the lead pastor of Reveille UMC. He is a graduate of Emory & Henry College and Duke University Divinity School. He has served churches in North Carolina, Newport News, Prince George, Crozet, and Richmond, where he lives with his wife Tracy and daughters Ellen and Claire.