Songs of Change - Human Dignity
"One bright sunny morning
in the shadow of the steeple,
by the relief office
I saw my people.
As they stood there hungry,
I stood there wondering
if God blessed America for me."
~Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie was raised amidst the vast economic disparities and prejudices of the Great Depression, the "dust bowl days." As he said in his autobiography, "Bound for Glory," he never could reconcile the word of God he heard on Sundays as a kid in Okemah, OK, with the harsh realities of life he experienced traveling around the country seeking work. Poor people were commodities, valued only for their labor, and undervalued for that. People of color were not true citizens, or even completely human, as some would argue. Children were expendable. While an elite minority continued to flourish, he saw the mass of humanity struggling and suffering. It didn't square with the words of the prophet: "My house is to be a house of prayer for all people." All people.
"How precious is your steadfast love, O God!" the Psalmist said. "All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings." (Psalm 36:7) For Woody, "all" meant all. Everyone, regardless of race or economics or any other factor used to divide and denigrate. He wrote "This Land is Your Land" as a "howdy," he said, to every itinerant family and migrant worker and day laborer and job seeker and beggar as a way of saying God loved 'em and that this land - God's house, God's promise - was theirs as much as anyone else's.
~Pr. Brad
God of creation, you are the God of all people in every place and time. Set us free from the sense of scarcity, or of fear, or of ownership and exclusivity, that keeps us from realizing your dream of whole, human community. Free us to value every human being as your child, your creation, and to honor you in the way we treat them. Amen
