“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Amos 5:24

As many of you know, I went to Burning Man last year and had an incredible time.  It’s a time when 80,000 people come from all around the world and create a community (much larger than many cities) for a week in the Nevada desert.  It’s all about bringing your authentic self.  Burning Man has been canceled in the desert, but there is a Virtual Burn taking place this week.  I had a very powerful experience yesterday. 

There was an experience where you could “make a confession without going to church.”  It was very interesting to be a part of this conversation considering I am a minister and most people come to me for confession.  So here I had been given space to do a confession with strangers from around the world.  There were about 12 of us on the zoom call.  Some were very funny confessions and others more serious.  I shared a childhood confession that I thought was going to be humorous, but as I started sharing, I started crying.  I didn’t realize how deeply this memory had affected me. When I was in first grade, I was a student at Alice Birney Elementary School.  I liked a little boy.  I forgot his name, but he made me laugh all the time, so much so, that I nicknamed him “Gilligan” after Gilligan’s Island.  Whenever he made me laugh I would hit his back as if to say, “That was so funny!” Well…my confession…one time I accidentally hit him so hard that he started crying.  I felt so bad!  I wanted to make everything right so I told him, “Hit me back!”  I got myself braced. I was ready for the impact.  I saw him winding up his arm, ready for the impact on my back.  And just as he was about to hit me in the back (which I was completely willing and ready to take) I could see the yard duty look at us right at that moment. She came over and reprimanded Gilligan and I felt so bad…again…because he was in trouble!  Here I was trying to right a wrong.  I was trying to bring equality and justice to my small universe, in my kid world, and it was all falling apart.  As I made this confession to my fellow burners, I realized just how important justice had been for me since my childhood.  I began to cry because I also realized how fragile justice is in our world today.  As much as we try to make things right…as much as we try to do the right thing…as much as we try to listen and lift up the voices of those who are suppressed and oppressed and repressed…sometimes justice is misconstrued and misunderstood and it still falls apart in the end.  We live in a fractured nation at this time where justice is a priceless commodity.  As Elias Chacour once said, “Peace without justice, is just pieces.” It was healing to bring up this memory from my childhood and I was grateful for the virtual community of burners who just listened without judgment and held space for this pastor and they all told me…you are forgiven.