UU Hymn #121: We'll Build a Land

I heard this song for the first time when we sang it as the closing hymn in church on Sunday. The text was written by Carolyn McDade based on Isaiah 61 and Amos 5:24. I've changed one phrase here, "anointed by God," because to me that idea refers to something very specific that feels exclusionist; otherwise, the text is the same as in the UU hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition.

We'll build a land where we bind up the broken.
We'll build a land where the captives go free,
Where the oil of gladness dissolves all mourning.
Oh, we'll build a promised land that can be.

(Chorus)
Come build a land where sisters and brothers,
United in love, may then create peace:
Where justice shall roll down like waters,
And peace like an ever-flowing stream.

We'll build a land where we bring the good tidings
To all the afflicted and all those who mourn,
And we'll give them garlands instead of ashes.
Oh, we'll build a land where peace is born.
(Chorus)

We'll be a land building up ancient cities,
Raising up devastations from old;
Restoring ruins of generations.
Oh, we'll build a land of people so bold.
(Chorus)

Come, build a land where the mantles of praises
Resound from spirits once faint and once weak;
Where like oaks of righteousness stand her people.
Oh, come build the land, my people, we seek.
(Chorus)

I did a reading about my spiritual journey with my new Ancestral Path Tarot the night before attending the UU church for the first time, and the card that came up in the position representing me in relation to the situation was the Queen of Swords. Here is the Queen of Swords in the Ancestral Path deck:

For me, the combination of this song and this card was like the final piece in a puzzle I've been working on for a long, long time. After sharing these words with this community of kind, openhearted people, the card image of this Queen of Swords flashed into my mind -- the warlike widow queen in traditional decks, here transformed into a creator goddess smiling with delight at the peaceful islands she has raised up out of the sea -- and what I have felt and suspected for years crystallized into commitment. I feel ready to say that, even if I never attend another service, I am (and probably long since have been) a Unitarian Universalist.

Every label I have tried before has felt like the worst card in Monopoly. Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. This one feels like a "get out of a jail free" card and a train ticket rolled into one. I don't know where the train is going yet, but I'm very excited to start the ride.