Poetry and Prayer—Day 23: March 23

Written by: Julia Smolucha

Marked by Ashes by Walter Brueggemann

Frazzled, we wait. Frightened, we wait. Forgetful, we wait. Forgotten, we wait. Fearless, we wait. Forged in the fire of misfortune, we wait. Fatigued, we wait. With failed hope, we wait. Unforsaken, we wait. As we wait, you enter in. Unexpected. Sometimes unwelcome. Often unseen. In our waiting, find us, renew us, bless us. Amen.

The Wizard of Uz, III: Satan

September 18, 2022

Perhaps the figure of Satan is an obsolete myth to be discarded to the scrap heap of silly religion. On the other hand, in the last 70 years, we have come to know Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Putin, and holocausts at Auschwitz, Siberia, Nagasaki, and Ukraine, so it is a bit ironic that after perhaps the most satanic century of them all, we have ceased to believe in Satan.

The Wizard of Uz, II: Sidites

September 11, 2022

Job’s wife has not fared well in the annals of religious literature, persona non grata from the very beginning when she had the audacity to tell Job to curse God and die. Augustine called her adiutrix diaboli, Satan's Secretary, or Assistant to the Diabolical One. Calvin used pretty much the same words when he called her the organum Satanae, the instrument of Satan.

The Wizard of Uz, I: Job

September 4, 2022

It is the immemorial problem of all western theology: Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer? If God is good and God is powerful, why is there so much evil in the world? If God is powerful God could stop a house fire on Christmas morning. If God is good, God would want to but clearly God didn’t, therefore what's the answer? To paraphrase Harold Kushner: Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s a good question but I don't want to give an answer. I want to tell a story.

Poetry and Prayer—Day 23: March 23