“Jesus Wept”
Oh, Lord… Oh, Lord. Every bone in our body, every tear in our eye, every drop of blood in our heart, cries to You.
We are not fools, O Lord. We are certain that others despaired in their time. But this is our time, O Lord. So hear, and forgive, the desperation of our prayer.
We cry out to You from amidst the earthquake ruins of Mexico. We cry out to You from the storm battered remains across the Caribbean, Texas and Florida, USA. We cry out to You from the refugee camps of our own hand-made storms in Myanmar, across Africa, the Middle East, and up into Europe, the places of respite, hope, fear, and violence.
We cry out to You from the halls of the United Nations where voices of belligerence confront our humble prayer for peace. We cry out from the streets of Venezuela, the secret places of North Korea, the cells of political prisoners, and the underground churches of people yearning to be free.
We cry out with this comfort, O Lord, that You are present in each locale of such despair. People turn to You in their icons, prayer beads, crucifixes, pictures, and candles. They turn to You in silence, in tears, in cries. Cry with them, O Lord. Let them know the depth of your love.
Then, O Lord, let your cry lead us to follow You into every place of urgency. From town and cities drenched in rain to families drowning in terror, from villages broken by the earth’s quake to nations broken by human quake, from the abuses of ancient hatred to the abuse of modern terror, we hear their cries, we share their hope, we promise our faith at work.
Oh, oh, Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. May it be so through our every effort to save, feed, restore, rebuild, teach, and in your holist name, love.
Amen.