Something there is that doesn’t love a wall
We see barriers erected between people of different lands.
We see sheets of steel and towers of concrete called ‘Protection’.
We see boundaries policed.
Watch men, women and children running from hunger and persecution,
looking for a gap in the wall………
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…………
We see walls of fear –
Fear of the young, fear of the stranger.
Fear of sexuality that is different, fear of the educated, fear of the poor.
Fear of the Muslim, fear of the Jew –
Fear upon fear, endless and perpetuating.
And we offer our silent prayer that solid walls of fear will crumble to dust.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…………
We hear the language of separation.
The jingoistic chant, the racial slur.
Words of indifference and dismissal,
Words arranged for the purpose of exclusion,
Words that sting and taunt,
Words that lie.
Let us find words that ring with love and truthfulness, that reach out through the emptiness of separation.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…………
We see the deluded barriers of the mind protecting self.
We see relationships stripped of affection, as one person becomes closed to another.
We see people trapped in misunderstanding, old hurts re-ignited,
bricks placed higher on the wall, goodwill and trust suspended.
And we ask for boundaries that are not impenetrable,
through which light can shine and distance be dissolved.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall………….
And when we need these boundaries for our own well being,
Let us know them for what they are,
Use them wisely and kindly,
Recognising our own vulnerability and that of others –
So each of us can find the space for retreat and succour,
Find that peace that passes all understanding, and be renewed with strength and love, for the task of living life joyfully in communion with all others.
Amen
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