To Love Your Neighbor- A Deconstruction Poem

By Holly Madden

Sunday school taught me to love my neighbor as myself
Without ever teaching me how to love myself. 
I learned love by
Sitting inside walls that lifted up the word of love while oppressing those outside. 

So I went outside, and learned the names of my land neighbors, columbine, goldfinch, mountain pika, white
tailed deer, 
And the disconnect grew. 

The outsider in me inspired me to look outside 
For love 
And there, 
I found God. 

While church taught me holiness through purity culture,
I met holiness in art, in the baby sparrows outside my window, and in a peaceful protest down on bijou street. 

Decades of molding gave way to mourning 
Which gave way to growing
Which gave way to knowing 
Creator found in waves and trees. 
Justice found in Jesus’ radical ways to include.
And holiness found in my creating, my surviving, and my connecting with all things holy in this wild world made by the breath of holy God. 

And through it all, I still have hope in church. 
I still believe that community can be justice and love and peace and inclusiveness in action. 

I no longer believe in a God limited by walls,
but believe in a wild God big enough to break down those walls
to expand vision and birth connection rooted in respect, diversity, creativity and love. 

I believe loving our neighbors looks like 
Bridges instead of Walls, 
Protected lands, 
Amends that acknowledge our part in oppression, 
Stories that tell our histories, 
Knowing our privilege to fight for this without, 
Hugging trees, 
Listening to birds,
Creating art, 
Throwing away boxes to build circles of community committed to healing.  
And may this way of living
reconstruct the love that reconstructs hope 
That heals this world
Tree by tree 
Land by land 
People by people.