A Prayer of Confession for Political People of Faith

[Photo by Amarand Agasi]

The past few weeks have been a roller coaster of reactions and emotions for those who are invested in the conversations about immigration and immigration reform in the United States. Personally, I was very excited about President Obama’s Executive Order halting the deportation of undocumented young people who arrived as children. Likewise, while I am glad that the Supreme Court set aside some aspects of Arizona’s immigration law, I still worry about ramifications of document checking that will go on in Arizona.

As I began to reflect on recent immigration developments, there were so many ways I could have gone. I initially began with a post about why I support and do not support recent developments and in the middle of some snarky commentary about teenagers’ ability to stand up to their parents, I realized that maybe this was not what I needed to be writing right now.  There are certainly times that I will need to speak/write with passion and fervor about such things, but for a person of faith like myself, I needed to take a moment and resist adding to the dehumanizing rhetoric that so often defines political debate.

This boy needed to take some time to come to God in prayer.

So . . . sitting in a Grand Island, NE cafe, of all places, I offer this prayer of confession:

God of all humanity, Your people come to You in prayer.

Remind us of Your calling to be your passionate, gracious and faithful servants in the world.

When we forget our own history and story,
Forgive us.

When we do not welcome the stranger,
Forgive us.

When we do not honor our neighbor,
Forgive us.

When we deny the humanity of any person,
Forgive us.

When our passion turns to persecution,
our anger turns to animosity
and righteousness turns to wrath
Forgive us.

When we repay evil with evil with our minds, hearts or hands
Forgive us.

Be with your people in our passionate actions of faith,
have mercy on us when we falter
and renew our spirits for the journey

Amen.

I do not fancy myself a particularly creative liturgist, so please feel free to liberate, adapt and change any or all parts of this prayer.

May the peace of Christ be with you all.