What does it mean
To fight the system
What does it mean
To you

Does it mean you
Push back all
Authority
And fight off those who tase you?

Let me tease you
With the improbable
Don’t let them phase you out
Don’t let them faze you
Let them face you
Let them look into your eyes
And see the demise
Of their integrity
Their conscience
In shambles
Their fellow human
In shackles
Powerless, frustrated
While they tackle
All that comes their way
Day after day

God we are tired
God we are tired
Of being oppressors
Of being oppressed.

God we are a people
Rising
Like poorly leavened bread
We struggle to rise-
Oh God- we have
All
The wrong
Yeast.

God makes us unleavened again
God shake us out
Of the yeast of Herod
And the yeast of the Pharises

God give us your yeast
God help us rise up
Against the opressors
Of our soul
With YOUR yeast
Oh Jesus
Let YOUR yeast
Shape a people
To make them YOUR people
YOUR sheep

Sheep who do not flinch
When they encounter
Those who tase
Those who hate
Those who tease
Those whose fate
Is strangely familar
To the very people
Whom they’re putting down
Who they’re telling
“You can’t”
In fear of becoming the opressed
When oh God
You’re telling us
“You can”
In loving God
And loving our neighbors,
Our enemies,
Our oppressors.

God when we feel opressed
May we not let
The yeast of this world
Shape our unleavened actions
May this world
Not shape how we rise up
Oh God! Help us fight the system
That the yeast of this world
Has shaped without challenge

What does it mean
To fight the system?
What does it mean
To challenge
To you
To who
To you
To kneel and pray
To ask Jesus
To help you challenge
All that comes at you
Day after day

We kneel and pray:

To be free from the enemy
Sowing discord
Pitting humanity
Against itself

Oh Lord we cry out to you
Oh Jesus we sing out to you
Have mercy on the powerful
Teach us to love
Send grace to the powerless
Teach us to forgive

For we hold positions
But we hold not
What true power is
For we know truly
You are
What
Power
Is.

Amen.