Not The Promised Land

Not The Promised Land

How can we sing behind glass windows
When children know such sorrows?
With half in this city
Assailed by poverty?

How can we argue
Over preferences, styles and liturgy
Over seat and pew
And for others have no energy?

How can we wear Sunday bests
Stitched by caged workers in Bangladesh?
How can we stand and sit and kneel
And yet not feel?

Is this a sacrifice pleasing to the Lord?
Giving an hour of our time
Wondering why more are not like us?
Looking the outsider up and down

Should we not start over?
This time begin with a lament
Tell God all that is wrong,
So that we can repent?

Oh Babylon is falling,
But we’ve been calling her Jerusalem.
Oh Babylon is falling,
And it’s a long journey home.

By Jasmine Chandra