there will come a day

there will come a day,
when we won't have
to mark good friday.

when there aren't any more executions.
when there isn't any more injustice
when there isn't any more death.

And then we will celebrate easter together.
but easter will just be our lives.
easter will just be our world.

we who love the fallen: a good friday call to worship

We who love the fallen
who desperately cling to those unjustly killed.

We who have walked with them,
we who slept and fought with them,
we who played and ate with them.

We gather on this day,
when they tried to kill Jesus-
and when they succeeded.

This moment is inscribed on our hearts-
just like the death of far too many others:
King and Romero, our family members,
our friends, our lovers.

We wish they weren't dead. We hate
their absence. We will seek justice
for those who killed them,
and for those who allowed them to die.

Though the ones who killed them
would like us to forget-
we will never forget.
We will always remember.

We who love the fallen.

forty years.

As most (both) readers will know, today is the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Two weeks after Good Friday, marking the violent death of another hero, who knew that if he kept going the way he was going, he was likely going to get killed. And he kept going anyway.

In the year or so before he was killed, Dr. King was being more and more public about his opposition to war and economic injustice. I think it's appropriate for me to post the lyrics to "Joe Hill", one of my favorite songs, in his honor today. In some ways, Joe Hill and Dr. King were in different struggles; in some ways not.

Here are the lyrics; the song is by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson. I'll sing it for you sometime if you don't know it.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

"In Salt Lake, Joe," says I to him,
him standing by my bed,
"They framed you on a murder charge,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."

"The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
they shot you Joe" says I.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
Says Joe "I didn't die"

And standing there as big as life
and smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe "What they can never kill
went on to organize,
went on to organize"

From San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill,
where working-men defend their rights,
it's there you find Joe Hill,
it's there you find Joe Hill!

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.