Spoken word by the spiritual poet

Just as I am, uncut, unplugged and unplanned, I enter the house of mercy, house of prayer and the house of Bethel, to call on the covenant name of our God–Yahweh. For he says, if we continually ask, continually seek, and continually knock, we will be given our answer, find our way and our doors will be opened. And he is the inescapable, Everlasting God who cannot lie as he is the Promise Keeper.

God of our silent tears, God of our silent prayers, we ask earnestly to hear the heartbroken outcry of humanity that enters your holy dwelling place in heaven. May the aged outcry linger long before you until you take notice. God of comfort and compassion, have mercy on us as we are a bloodlust, broken and sinful people, hurting and in need of healing. For millennia, the heart condition of humanity remains unchecked, unchanged, and unmoved in spite all the progress we have made. We have built marvelous, magnificent world-wonders beyond our wildest imagination, spanned the globe, summit the moon, and are probing the outermost cosmos for forensic evidence of life. But we still cannot affect the human condition, the heart condition as that is your realm. Turn the heart of fallen humanity to yours, from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. For you are greater than the heart of man, as you are the Unmovable Cause who can do the impossible and effectuate change.

Lord of all flesh and Lord of all breath, we desperately seek you and beseech you to take this bitter cup of humanity. Nevertheless, if this is the everlasting Way to love our neighbor as ourselves, we will endure the ambivalence, anxiety and ire that burns inside our bone, blood and bosom across the nation. But we confess, unprovoked hate hurts deeply to the core and it still begs the question as to why perpetual disdain towards the black race is still given global oxygen to breathe and live with such power and penchant persuasion in the twenty-first-century. Are we not from Adam? Are they not our brother’s keeper? Do they still believe we carry the mark of Cain? Do they still believe we carry the curse of Ham? Do they still believe the “Bible Belt” is still home to the lord of the lash, who rules the “Black Belt” without justice, righteousness, and mercy? Do they still believe we are waiting for the sound of Jubilee’s triumphant freedom cry? Do they still believe we are waiting for 40 acres and a mule? Do they still believe black history is not American history? And do they still not believe the blood of our forebears is splattered on the altar of freedom alongside the stalwart men and women of uncommon valor? If they do not, then why are we still hunted and hated like Esau without cause, and why is there no city of refuge for the black man in this Promise Land? Therefore, we seek you earnestly, as you have the words of eternal life, the balm in Gilead that is able to heal and reconcile humanity from its depravity. For we don’t want Red Summer to rain down upon us. We don’t want Watts to rain down upon us. And we don’t want death, discord and destruction to rain down upon us. Lord, have mercy on us and heal our hearts, homes, and our land.

King of our days and Lord of our lives, the children of former slaves who were subjected to the original sin of inhuman bondage are still marching around the White House walls of injustice, knocking persistently until change relegates the spirit of racism to its rightful place. For we know racism will never die, as it is part and parcel of humanity’s brokenness. More importantly, this is not a fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities and cosmic powers, evil, and spiritual wickedness in high places, who are determined to takeaway the breath of every soul to Sheol. Therefore, we sound the catholic clarion call to the eclectic ecclesia of God’s people to rouse them to “stand your ground” against the spirit of racism anywhere and everywhere. The church must take her rightful seat and support the despised, demonized, and disenfranchised people around the world. Scripture says, “Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.” So, remember your black brothers, black sisters, and people of color, who endured under the unspeakable iron rule of inhuman bondage, slave codes, and Jim Crow as though you yourselves suffered with them.

We believe in the sovereign word, sovereign will, and authority and power of the strong Redeemer–Jesus Christ. We believe his blood can wash away the crimson bloodstained color lines of racism and sin. For the song writer says, “We’re the people of God, called by his name; called from the dark; and delivered from shame, one holy race, saints everyone; because of the blood of Christ, Jesus the Son”. Therefore, with mustard seed faith, we continually ask, continually seek, and we continually knock until God delivers us from the brokenness, sin, and shame of humanity.