We are called to proclaim the truth . . . And let us believe:
It is not true that this world and its people are
doomed to die and to be lost.
This is true: I have come that they may have life
in all its abundance.
It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and
discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction.
This is true: the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life,
the poor are hearing the good news.
It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last
word, and that war and destruction have come to stay forever.
This is true: death shall be no more, neither shall there
be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore.
It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of
evil who seek to rule the world.
This is true: the Lord whom we seek will suddenly
come to the temple; and the Lord is like a refiner’s fine.
It is not true that our dreams of liberation, of human dignity,
are not meant for this earth and for this history.
This is true: it is already time for us to wake from sleep.
For the night is far gone, the day is at hand.
The words of Allan Boesak, adapted from an address for the World Council of Churches, in Bread of Tomorrow: Prayers for the Church Year (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books 1992); quoted in Imaging the Word: An Arts and Lectionary Resource, Volume 2 (Cleveland, OH: United Church Press 1995), p 95.