category: Poetry

Salvation Comes

By Rachael Keefe

I cannot get this week’s texts out of my head. Habakkuk and Isaiah are hauntingly convicting and Zacchaeus’ story makes it real for me. This poem sums up where I am at the moment. Salvation Comes another murder a few hours ago a few miles away I cry, “O Lord, …

Salvation Comes

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I cannot get this week’s texts out of my head. Habakkuk and Isaiah are hauntingly convicting and Zacchaeus’ story makes it real for me. This poem sums up where I am at the moment.

Salvation Comes

another murder
a few hours ago
a few miles away
I cry, “O Lord, how much longer will we suffer such violence?”
I want God to fix it
now

God watches and waits
knowing the vision of Love
written large enough for all to see
if any care to look

another Black man shot by a police officer
will not receive justice
because racism is easier than change
I cry, “O Lord, why do you make me see such wrongdoing?
I want God to save me, save us
now

God watches and waits
points at the blood on my hands, your hands
and the empty words tumbling from our mouths
I have not done as God has asked
have you?

another homeless person goes unsheltered without notice
heroin claims another life and the addict is blamed for her own suffering
children go to sleep hungry while leftovers mold in many refrigerators
women huddle battered and bruised victims of more than violence
racism and misogyny spew from public mouths with excuses made
and so much more

I run to climb higher
seeking freedom
seeking Jesus
seeking anything that will cleanse
my hands
my thoughts
my heart
I cry

and there Jesus is calling me down to the ground
showing me salvation
in the face of those who suffer
and look to me for hope

the trees I climb are safe no more
they do not hide me from the truth

I can cry out to God
who waits for me
to turn
and see
Love

until I can, until we can
be Love
seek justice
free the oppressed
defend the orphan
plead for the widow

our offerings are meaningless
and our sins remain scarlet

this is God’s vision
now

it has to be yours
and mine


If you are looking for sermon help, you may want to check this out.

RCL – Year C – Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 with Psalm 119:137-144 or
Isaiah 1:10-18 with Psalm 32:1-7
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Luke 19:1-10

Photo: CC0 image by Petra

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About Rachael Keefe

Rachael is an author, a pastor, a teacher, and a poet. Her latest book (The Lifesaving Church - Chalice Press) is on faith and suicide prevention. She is currently the pastor of Living Table UCC in Minneapolis, and has launched a spiritual direction practice.

4 thoughts on “Salvation Comes”

  1. I was thinking along your lines this morning. Maybe it was the radio giving facts and figures of more destruction in Syria; or was it a very vicious killing just down the street in Manchester; or a man jumping from a bridge whilst holding his 2 toddlers. And I cry out to Jesus, “have mercy, oh Lord”. It feels like things are spinning faster and faster. And then, the only thought I can grasp is that from Eden…we are all fallen, broken, fearful and suffering. My part, when I asked Him what I should do, came with the words, “Make me an instrument of your peace……”.
    and broken and suffering.

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