I Desire Mercy

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.” Matthew 12:1-14 

I Desire Mercy

How I would love to live here
where mercy and love overflow
where light is refracted through hope
where competition and greed are not.

We live in a world of crushing cruelty
where the poor as shamed as the lazy
when sick need to beg for basic care
where children go to bed hungry daily.

There is plenty for all and abundance
yet some would choose to hoard all
power corrupts and makes judgements
on those whose sin is simply skin color.

How I ache to see the rainbow return
the living waters running over all
children with full bellies laughing
no one refused because of their lack.

Today we will pick the grain heads
we will walk and continue the journey
we will persevere for justice and love
praying in the night and at dawn.