Our sins are paltry
Our insights dim
Our wisdom is missing
Our worship a sin
Our knowledge is wanting
Our commentary dumb
Our opinions mean nothing
When our hearts are numb
Our play is destructive
Our work wasted
Our mouths are open tombs
We have disgraced grace
Our minds are dull
Our necks are stiff
Our two hands make us stumble
Towards the edge of a cliff
We have produced nothing
On which to stand
The world we’ve fabricated
Is nothing but sinking sand
Though we cannot see
Our own blindness
And we cannot taste
Our own gluttony
The delusion grows larger
Refusing to ever set us free
We are not righteous
We do not seek the One
We want what we want
To fill up and have fun
How dare we drag our neighbors
To be judged
Instead of inviting them into our lives
To be known and loved
On what words do we stand
Is it lies that we hallow
Unaware to the truth
We’ve made our own gallow
We do not imitate The Way
How dare we talk about God
When the juices of the forbidden fruit
Continually drip out our mouths
We want what we want
We don’t know what we need
But how could we know
When we justify greed
We are all partakers and participants
In our belief in autonomy
One by one we’ve destroyed God’s creation
With our blessed economy
It has costs us our lives
We have sacrificed all
Just to consume what we want
Like our parents in The Fall
We say “In God we trust”
Though our lives testify
We honor him with our lips
But our hearts are not his
Our idle words are tallying up
Our rapaciousness wants more
Scarcity moves us toward nothing
Fear fills the emptiness
Of our hearts, minds, bodies and spirits
If we loved God
Then we would love differently
If we loved ourselves
Then we would live differently
If we loved our neighbors
Then we would love God
We are in the eleventh hour
Don’t you know
Doom is on our heads
Because of the seeds we’ve sowed
How do we respond
To our murderous ways
What do we say
About hearts gone astray
According to scripture
Our only chance
Is to turn back to God
In repentance
This is the way
Out of the mire
It’s the opposite way
Toward holy fire
Forgive us Abba
For we know not we’ve done
Forgive us Abba
For our wickedness under the Sun
Forgive us Abba
For our greed and gluttony
Forgive us Abba
For our adultery and thievery
Forgive us Abba
For our consumption and waste
Forgive us Abba
For our sloth done in haste
Forgive us Abba
For the injustice we have done
Against your holy creatures
And your beautiful creation
Forgive us Abba
For our entitlement
For demanding more
Than we sacrifice or give
Forgive us Abba
For using your gifts
As a means to our ends
To feed our acquisitiveness
We have sinned against you
In word, thought and deed
By omission and commission
We have blasphemed
We have believed lies
And eaten the fruit
Now we are blind
Deaf and mute
Forgive us our sins
For they are great
But Abba, though our sins are many
They are nothing next to your infinite grace.
DeeAnn Dean 