The Holy One has been rejected
so that routine might not be disrupted.
Cry out, O Brokenhearted!
The Holy One has suffered
so that the murderer might walk free.
Cry out, O Brokenbodied!

Raise your lament, all you who are witnesses.
Do not hold back your rage before the Healer.

The Righteous One has been vilified
so that the white devil might slip away.
Weep and shout, O Distrusted!
The Righteous One has been parodied
so that fear might force heaven’s hand.
Weep and shout, O Doubted!

Raise your protest, all you who are witnesses.
Do not be ensnared by lies but by love.

The Coming One has been outed
so that dreamers might be silenced.
Be unapologetic, O Beauty!
The Coming One has been constrained
by the consuming needs of the greedy.
Be free and wild, O Beloved!

Lift up your hope, all you who are witnesses.
Do not bow to the shaming of Embodiment.

How often will witnesses
pray to know the good
by ignoring the ease of evil?

How long will witnesses
seek God’s face in a sunset
but not in a stranger’s eyes?

How long will witnesses
talk of “Peace, peace”
without preparing the way?

See how the Holy Body prays for its own heart!
See how the Holy Heart prays for its own body —
the sacred Child, championing life.
Make of witnesses members, O Wholly One!
Make of protests the wine of community
in power, in hope, in love.

on the Revised Common Lectionary readings


The Rev. Rachel G. Hackenberg‘s book with Martha Spong, Denial Is My Spiritual Practice (and Other Failures of Faith), searches for faith through life’s trials. Rachel has also written Writing to God, a popular Lenten devotional, and other books.


RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals [at] gmail [dot] com.

One thought on “Sunday Psalm: Protest

We hope you'll join the conversation!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.