Streetwise Sermons (version 2)

Verse

Ninth Street chapel built on a parking lot cement

Congregation's people who the whole system left to burn

Pastor's voice cut through glass and diesel smoke

Said God don't care where you stand — stand anyway though

I was ten years old listening in a folding chair

Crying through every amen while my mother sat there

She sang like it could save us, but we already knew the score

Every block got its own hellhole door

Pre-Chorus

So what's a sermon when the walls still burn?

What's a prayer when the block won't learn?

I thought God had to look like something real

Not just words on paper — feel the steel

Chorus

Streetwise sermons — we already knew the deal

Nobody here naive about how faith would feel

Church of the corner, every sermon a scream

Faith's not safe when you standing in between

Verse 2 — male and female trading bars like this throughout the song

I walked that block at sixteen — preached in my voice instead

Same pulpit different tone — same message for what needed said

Said rise up — don't ask why — don't wait for nobody's nod

We our own salvation, every brick we've got

Wore a Bible on my waist like the cross was armor

Felt the fear turn to fury, heard it in the armor

Pre-Chorus

So what's a sermon when the walls still burn?

What's a prayer when the block won't learn?

I thought God had to look like something real

Not just words on paper — feel the steel

Chorus

Streetwise sermons — we already knew the deal

Nobody here naive about how faith would feel

Church of the corner, every sermon a scream

Faith's not safe when you standing in between

Bridge — slow, chant-like, no beat drop

I learned one thing from Pastor — don't ask if they believe

Just show them what it looks like to stand and still breathe

No altar here — just the streetlight above

That's the only pulpit big enough for our love

Chorus

Streetwise sermons — we already knew the deal

Nobody here naive about how faith would feel

Church of the corner, every sermon a scream

Faith's not safe when you standing in between