Good Friday and Modern Evil

Last night, as we stripped the altar, one of our members read Psalm 22.  It's a Psalm that always hits me, but in different ways each year.

I have spent part of the week reading about the horrible prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration is shipping people without giving them their day in court.  I realize that there are many abuses of human rights in the world, but that's the one that has seemed inescapable this week.  This week is the first time I've seen more pictures than just the one of a bent man with a shaved head.  The pictures of men forced to kneel with no space between them has made me ache in all sorts of ways.

sketch by Jill Ross

 

I have forced myself to look at these pictures.  My brain reminds me that the federal government through the decades has always been in cahoots with shady/criminal people/governments, but it's often been at a remove:  the CIA does the dirty deed, while the administration claims surprise.  Now we have a president who muses about sending citizens to prisons abroad, a vomitous development.

Last night I thought of innocent people whisked away, all people whisked away without a chance to defend themselves.  When the lector read verse 11, I almost cried out loud:  

"Do not be far from me, 

for trouble is near,
and there is no one to help."

On this day when we remember the crucifixion of Jesus by a variety of earthly powers, it is good to remember all the ways that the power of empire has not been transformed.  But it is also imperative to remember that every faith proclaims that the powers of evil do not have the final word. 

Psalm 22 ends this way, declaring that the power of good will not be overcome:

"future generations will be told about the Lord
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it."