Talk with the Preacher
Lord, we’re here today looking for respite, relief, repair…something, anything, that will lead us safely out of the whirlwind that has become our reality in America today.
We can’t help it—the news is too much. We turn our backs to the power of your love, we stare into the abyss of a culture now reaping what it has sown, the results on display in the faces and hands and terrified cries of children we are willfully sacrificing to the god of empire, the powers we have elected laughing in the face of extreme suffering. What can we do? We don’t know, so we’re tempted to turn back to our own comfort, intentionally immune.
Oh God, forgive us. Forgive us for not waking up before now. Forgive us for our blind complicity, refocus us—again and again—until the unrelenting mandate of your radical love brings our work, our lives, our world into sharp relief and we see clearly…finally.
The world is too much with us these days, Oh God, and we forget…we forget that you were here long before we ever came into being…and you will be here long after we have gone, bending the arc of the universe toward justice just…a…little…more. We were not there when you laid the foundations of the earth and determined its measurements. Where were we when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? Did we have anything whatsoever to do with telling the waves—or the lava—when and where to stop? No, we did not. It’s you, Oh God, who had made us and it is you who always, always has the final say: not the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not Twitter, not the press secretary, and not the president. Only you.
Remind us. Refocus our hearts…and our efforts…so that in these moments we might bend the arc with you, slowly, determinedly, relentlessly…toward justice and love. The end is not for us to worry about or to even know; that belongs to you. Our work, instead, is to be your partners in healing the world. In that spirit, we pray today for all of us who are tired, grieving, longing for wholeness, unable to be who we are—fully and openly—and know that we are beloved children of God, all of us, and especially today our LGBTQ brothers and sisters.
The poet reminds us: out of a great need we are all holding hands and climbing. Not loving is letting go. The terrain around here is far too dangerous for that. Help us today to renew our resolve to never let go, to refocus our living on joining your work of healing the world. Because evil is so very strong, Oh God, but your love is stronger. Believing that, we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us….
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