World in Prayer

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, September 8, 2016

Remember, O God.
Remember how you, O God, were determined to kill the Israelites
whom you had brought out of Egypt,
because they had turned against you and worshiped other gods.
Remember how Moses called you to account?
How he reminded you that you had made promises of faithfulness
to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel?
Remember…that you remembered. And changed your mind.
And abandoned the disaster you had planned to bring on your people,
and let them live.
(Exodus 32:7-14)

Remind us too, O God, of all the promises of faithfulness we have made to one another.
Let the memories of the promises – of kinship, of friendship, of business relationships, of mutual responsibility, of national and international peace –
let those memories outweigh all the ways we have turned against one another.

Let it be the memories of the promises of faithfulness, that sway the decisions of leaders and peoples:

  • In Syria, where the opposition has suggested a transition plan toward free elections
  • In Hong Kong, where youth protest leaders won seats on the Legislative Council – only to have China respond by warnings that anyone who speaks in favor of Hong Kong independence will be punished
  • In South Sudan, that has agreed to allow more peace keepers into the country
  • In Ethiopia, as political violence continues to delay the distribution of aid to four million people hit by drought and floods
  • In Kenya, where the new Community Land Bill establishes a means for impoverished nomadic communities to acquire titles to their ancestral lands – a process that experts hope will help end land conflicts, boost development and improve investor relations
  • In Colombia, after the FARC rebel group postponed its meeting to ratify a peace agreement with the government for another week
  • In Gabon, where President Ali Bongo’s narrow election victory has stirred up fears of violence

Let it be the memories of the longing for faithfulness, that color our prayers for those who have died:

  • For Mother Teresa of Calcutta, declared a saint this week in a canonization Mass held by Pope Francis in the Vatican
  • For Phyllis Schlafly, who died this week after decades of being one of the most prominent leaders of the conservative Christian anti-feminist movement in the United States
  • For all whom we remember this weekend, on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. – the terrorists, the innocent, the rescuers, the lives that touched so many nations

Make us into your own image, O God.
Make us creatures of memory – not of memories of betrayals and distrust,
but, like you,  of faithfulness promised from age to age.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 14, 2016

There is a terrifying passage in ‘I and Thou’ by the Jewish mystic Martin Buber in which God says ‘I have sunk my hearing in the deafness of mortals’.  If this should be even partly true what a tremendous responsibility it places upon us to listen, to listen to each other with our whole attention, with our hearts, but what a difficult thing to do. ~ Elizabeth Bassett in “Beyond the Blue Mountains: Wisdom and Compassion on Living and Dying” (p. 93)

Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations… Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and digestion… My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The news recently has been a cataloged of ever greater misery, tragedy, horror, and violence depicting the broken relationships between groups and nations. Hurt breeds resentment and violence arising from a sense of frustrated helplessness. This makes the truth of the essential need to truly listen to each other haunting. Challenge and inspire me. I can only hope to do this through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit to enable me to fulfill, however falteringly, the command of the risen Christ, “Follow me!”

LET GOD…be Parent…speak…liberate me from my prisons…direct my path…infuse me with grace and love.

How do we reconcile God’s grace and love with our world where at least 80 are dead in Nice (pron. Neece), France as a result of a rampage driver, weaponry, and a hate-filled heart? Who did this? Why? What matter does it make? Hate and violence and death… Death and violence and hate…

  • The killings between black and white, police and citizens in the U.S.A. and in Kenya;
  • Bombings and murder of Christians and other minority faiths in Iraq;
  • The seizing of Christian villages by Kurds;
  • The bombings and warfare in South Sudan;
  • The territorial advancement by China onto militarized coral reefs and artificial islands in the South China Sea as platforms for their nuclear arms;
  • Over a thousand people have ‘disappeared’ without trace and 40,000 have been arrested and tortured in the last 3 years in Egypt according to Amnesty International;
  • Hunger and lack of food in Venezuela that is being tackled by the army because it is so pervasive.

Lord, help us to persevere in the face of so many discouragements to do whatever little bit of good we can wherever we are. Together these small acts form channels for your love and grace to be freed to transform our brokenness and overwhelm evil. Lord hear us and bless us.

With a new government and a second female Prime Minister installed in the UK, we pray for the challenges to be faced together, from people of very differing viewpoints and convictions, so that the good of the country – as well as bridge-building to repair shaken if not broken relationships with other groups and countries – can be undertaken in honesty and integrity.

We pray that all those, everywhere, may listen to each other before leaping into superficial response and action. Our heavy use of social media often makes this a default position rather than pausing, reflecting, and even daring to take time to pray… We continue to pray for the often bitter and divisive presidential electoral campaign in the U.S.A. So often at times like this we seem to revert to appealing to the lowest common denominator instead of offering a vision of the best… Forgive us when we get seduced by the attractiveness of power – thinking it glamorous rather than often seedy and corrupting.

Remind us, O God:

Good is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours, through him who loves us…Child of God, known by name, and whose very hairs are numbered. Praise and adore God and thank him for ever and ever. ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu in “An African Prayer Book”

LET ME…be son or daughter…listen…walk out of my prisons through opened doors…follow your guidance…open up my being to your grace and love…Study and imitate…the perfect sonship of Jesus the Christ…the universal brother…or all other sons and daughters.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, April 7, 2016

He comes to us as One unknown,
without a name, as of old,
by the lakeside, He came to
those men who knew Him not.
He speaks to us the same words:
‘Follow thou me!’ and sets us
to the tasks which He has to
fulfill for our time. –Albert Schweitzer

You come to us, God, and yet we fail to recognize you, caught as we are in the trials and tribulations, in the sorrows and sins, of this daily life of ours.

  • You come to us in the rival Christian groups who are working together to save the holy site in Jerusalem described as the Tomb of Jesus.
  • You come to us in all refugees, in those migrants facing deportation to Turkey from Greece, in the more than 260,000 refugees of various nationalities in Yemen, in those fleeing violence in Honduras and El Salvador and seeking asylum in Mexico. We pray for those fleeing war, abuse, and poverty.
  • You come to us in those suffering from yellow fever in Kenya and China, in those suffering from curable diseases because they cannot afford the necessary medications.
  • You come to us in those who are drawn to or pressed into violence and terrorism throughout the world.

You come to us, O God, calling us to be agents of reconciliation, of health and healing, of justice and peace in our world, wherever we may be.

  • You come to us in neighbor and stranger, in those who look like us and those who look very different from us, in those who speak our language and those whose language sounds so foreign to our ears.
  • You come to us in the faces and lives of abused women and children, of victims of rape and child marriage and female genital mutilation, of those living year after year in refugee camps, of those who are perpetually hungry and thirsty and see no relief in sight.
  • You come to us in the voices of those calling for justice- in Burma, in Somalia, in the United States, in Syria, in Palestine, in Afghanistan.
  • You come to us in the cries of those demanding that their vote count, those demanding integrity on the part of their elected leaders- in England, in Iceland, in Russia, in China.
  • You come to us in the hopelessness of those living in poverty, wherever they may be, even as they look at the wealth which seems so far out of their reach.

You come to us and we fail to recognize you, caught as we are in our own cycles of self-pity and apathy. Yet you do not give up on us, even as you do not let us off the hook from doing your work in the world. Your voice speaks to us: ‘Follow me!’…on paths of justice which may be difficult and even dangerous, on journeys of compassion which may pull from us every ounce of courage and commitment. And you remind us, ever remind us, that we do not walk alone, for you are with us, guiding and guarding, leading and loving. Free us from the fears that bind us, that we may bring new life to the world.

You come to us, O God. May we be open to hearing your voice and to following your lead on this often-difficult journey we call Life. May it truly be so. Amen

 

World News This Week in Prayer – Thurs., March 18, 2016

Today we begin Holy Week, walking the Via Dolorosa with Jesus of Nazareth…sitting at the table at the Last Supper, watching and waiting in Gethsemane’s garden, seeing with horror and dread the arrest and torture and trials, and finally, weeping at the foot of the cross. But today, Gracious God, we begin with his arrival at Jerusalem, riding on a borrowed colt, and surrounded by people praising God loudly:

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!

And then, as happens so often in our world even today, some of the religious people complained and admonished him, “Rabbi, order your disciples to stop. They’re making too much noise. They are offending the religious order. Tell them to stop.” And Jesus said to them, “I tell you,

If these were silent, the very stones would shout out.

As we look around our world, O God, your world, as we open our eyes and ears and hearts, we become aware of the many situations which demand our attention, our intervention, our words… so why are we so often silent? Forgetting that Jesus said,

If these were silent, the very stones would shout out.

Wars rage, and hopes for peace talks in Syria are dimming. The people of South Sudan continue to live in fear and flee their homes, with little hope of ever returning… yet we remain silent, forgetting that Jesus said,

If these were silent, the very stones would shout out.

Everywhere we look, the mistreatment of girls and women continues–in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Turkey, yet some courageous young women in Palestine and the United States and Kenya and Guatemala are using their voices, their spoken word poems, to challenge and confront, to tell the truth, remembering that Jesus said,

If these were silent, the very stones would shout out.

Even as we attempt to honor the Prince of Peace, contention seems to be the rule of the political day in so many places, with the people of Great Britain divided about remaining in the European Union, with the people of the United States divided about their choice of candidates in the Presidential primaries, with words being used to foster enmity and hate, separation and exclusion, while so many of us remain silent, forgetting that Jesus said,

If these were silent, the very stones would shout out.

And throughout the world, refugees are being treated, not with welcome, but with anger and resentment, as hospitality is pushed aside, replaced by fear of the other. Where is our outrage, O God, as so many of us remain silent, forgetting that Jesus said,

If these were silent, the very stones would shout out.

Why do we remain silent, O God? Is it out of fear of what other people will think of us? Is it out of fear for our jobs? Our lives? How do we live out the call of the prophets to “Do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with our God”? Jesus has told us, and his words echo again and again,

If these were silent, the very stones would shout out.

Fill us with daring, O God of justice. Fill us with compassion. Fill us with the determination to be the people you have called us to be, to be the Body of Christ in this world. Open our ears to hear the words of Jesus as he says,

If these were silent, the very stones would shout out.

So make of us shouting stones, Lord of Mercy and Daring…shouting stones who dare to speak out for those who have no voice, for those forgotten by our world, for those who need someone to speak for them. And let us do it in the name of the One who spoke with his life for us–Jesus the Christ. Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, November 12

Having but recently celebrated that moment “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month month” 97 years ago when the belligerents of World War I agreed to armistice, to the cessation of harmful deeds even in the absence of an agreed formula for a fully organized peace, let us lift hands and hearts in a spirit of armistice at our own 11th hour.

We pray for the end of:

  • death by suicide bomb in Beirut, Lebanon and anywhere else,
  • genocide in Burundi or anywhere else,
  • female genital mutilation in Kenya or anywhere else,
  • lethal travels for refugees from Syria or anywhere else,
  • torture in China or anywhere else,
  • legal, physical, political, and economic abuse.

God of prophets who have stormed in their critiques, we know such things are wrong. We pray you strengthen us to be your agents in ending such evils.

God of hearers of prophecy who have recognized error and changed their ways, we pray you use us to support others who are even more directly the agents in ending these wrongs.

We know that armistice is not enough. It is not enough that genocide and murder and mutilation are illegal. It is not enough that nations signed treaties or governments enact laws to protect children, to prohibit discrimination, or to guarantee security. We celebrate the end of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, but without impassioned attention to public health, an epidemic will come again. Forgive us for the weakness that tempts us to think that if dangers recede, then they must have disappeared. Energize us with the vigilance we need to end the scourges of infectious disease. Equip us with the willingness to care for the desperate refugees who would come among us. Instill in us the creativity to confront drought and desertification. Let us never accept the slow starvation of famine.

And yet we pray as well that you give us a cheerful spirit to meet not just challenges we have named but even challenges whose nature we may not even guess. Give us a proper respect for free elections in Myanmar and let us be forthright in celebrating the ability of former enemies to transfer power legally and peacefully. Let us greet the efforts of young men in the United States and in Kenya and in Australia to protest the continuing racism that scars the faces of our societies. Let us welcome the willingness of individuals and of corporations to apologize for errors and to set themselves on corrective paths.

In this as in every hour, we need the direction of your purpose to make our own lives meaningful. In this as in every hour, the world needs us to act as your servants. In this as in every hour, we seek your blessing.

Amen

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, September 24, 2015

“Now Israel, what does the LORD your God desire from you? Only this: fear him, walk in all his ways, love him, serve him with all your heart and in all your life.  Deuteronomy 10: 12 (NIV)

The Lord has shown you what is good. He has told you what he requires of you. You must act with justice. You must love to show mercy. And you must be humble as you live in the sight of your God. Micah 6: 8 (NIRV)

While preparing for this Sunday’s service, it reminded me that underpinning all of Jesus’ teaching- whether on healing, speaking, serving, living – is the crucial relationship we have with God.  If we love God and want to walk according to his will and purpose, as Jesus did, then everything else falls into place and challenges so many of our default positions.  We criticise others because they are not as we are – which is often in their favor, but which we find hard to believe or even think!

And so we see it reflected in the news, where bombs in a Sanaa, Yemen mosque killed worshippers celebrating Eidh-al-Adha (commemorating Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac); Bangladeshi bloggers are killed because they express ideas contrary to fundamentalist Muslims; and so with ISIL in the Middle East, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and so many ‘Christian’ countries throughout history.  We may no longer kill, but we try to kill their spirits by marginalising, ignoring, humiliating, and otherwise denying their humanity held in common with us as created by God.

Lord, forgive our arrogance and closed minds.  Open our hearts by your Holy Spirit to the teaching of the Word made Flesh

We  hold before you the suffering of so many in Sumatra, due to fires which have been raging for several months, causing high levels of air pollution in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.  And as fires continue to blaze throughout California, USA, we give thanks that some prisoners used as volunteer firefighters are helping and simultaneously finding a new purpose in life.

Lord, help us to turn tragedies into opportunities to work together as your family here on our shared earth. Lord, have mercy.

This week has revealed the corrupt practices of so many multi-national companies and governments – from German car manufacturer VW cheating and lying to obtain false low carbon emissions for their diesel cars, to various governments in recent history including Germany, the USA, France, Panama and especially the United Kingdom, teaching how to interrogate with torture methods that leave no physical trace. In Kenya 500 police officers have been charged with crimes including murder.

Lord, we mutilate and destroy our brothers and sisters and the world you have given us.  Teach us anew to honor and cherish all of your creation which thereby contains that which is divine. Lord, have mercy.

We give thanks for the woman in Liverpool, England,  who disturbed by the plight of refugees has literally opened her home to a refugee family. We give thanks too for so many in Greece, already struggling themselves to survive, who care, feed, and provide tents to arriving refugees.

We give thanks, too, for all the high-tech work going on in so many places towards helping those paralyzed to have the hope of walking again; and for low-tech ways of improving agriculture in countries struggling with hunger and declining water supplies.

As Pope Francis visits the United States, bless him and all those to whom he is reaching out, in the Congress, at the United Nations, and in the communities he is visiting. Open all to hear his call to care lovingly for this planet and for the people which populate it. Open hearts to hear his call for Mercy and Justice.

Lord, open our eyes to see and give thanks for the people you have called to do your work in the world and who have answered with the dedication of their lives. Lord, have mercy.

God our challenger and disturber, help us to confront
all that makes for death and despair
in our lives, our communities, our world.
May we never lose sight
of the possibility of transformation
and be continually surprised
by people who believe in one another.    AMEN.
                                          (Joy Mead, in Friend and Enemies)

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, June 18, 2015

Well may the world go,
The world go, the world go,
Well may the world go,
When I’m far away.
— Pete Seeger (c. 1973)

For months now, this has been my wake-up song, a conscious choice to spend my first moments of each day letting go of all I can’t control, of all I cannot or dare not comprehend. Entrusting the whole world into God’s hands.

But today when I woke, it was clear that the world was not going well at all. More drive-by shootings in my own city. The news of a young white man shooting down nine black people, described as well-respected mentors, during a prayer circle at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Allegations by UNICEF that at least 129 children were killed, with boys castrated and girls raped, during a government offensive against rebels last month in South Sudan.

Earlier in the week, bombs found at an abandoned stronghold of Boko Haram Islamists exploded, killing at least 13 people and injuring 45 others in northeast Nigeria.  The United Nations reported that in 2014, nearly 60 million people were displaced by war, conflict or persecution – the biggest global refugee population since the year World War II ended. The U.N. World Food Programme is facing a shortfall in donor funding, and will have to cut food rations – by a third! – for half a million mainly Somali and South Sudanese refugees living in camps in northern Kenya.

North Korea has been hit by what it describes as its worst drought in a century, which is expected to increase chronic food shortages in a country where almost a third of children under five are stunted because of poor nutrition. Several provinces in Pakistan are running out of ground water, with no system in place to replenish it. Much of Zimbabwe has had insufficient rain to support crops. International aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres warns that Yemen’s health care system is on the verge of collapse, while 80% of the population urgently need aid.

No, the world isn’t going well at all.
And tonight, I have no pretty words of prayer, only undiluted anguish.
And anger.

God, we, your beloved children, still have not learned how to identify and stop those who choose to brutalize and denigrate and kill others, before untold damage is done.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We still all too often act as if lamenting violence is a competitive sport, with accusations that this group doesn’t care enough about the deaths in that group, or that group doesn’t care enough about the root causes of the hunger or poverty or powerlessness or oppression in this group.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Millennia after you, God, started trying to teach us that you are God of all, we still fall into thinking that the people near us, or like us, matter more. That our drought is more pressing than their drought. That the names of our dead need to be read out across the land, while the names of those who died in other lands remain unspoken here.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Well may the world go,
The world go, the world go,
Well may the world go,
When I’m far away.

Lord, instill in us your heart, your very own heart.
Lord, instill in us your love, that we – all of us – may join with you in making it so.

 

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, April 9, 2015

Loving God,
we pray for the opportunity to join you in the work of creation. The Bible declares that creation occurred first with light, when the world was full of emptiness and disorder. We look around and see disorder of our own time:
  • in the United States, we are shocked by the cell phone recording of a white policeman gunning down a fleeing black man, especially when we compare it to the reports which the officer and others filed. We had hoped we could trust the agencies of law enforcement.
  • in Afghanistan, someone dressed as a soldier (was he a soldier?) shot and killed one and wounded others, this incident occurring shortly after a significant diplomatic visit. What was the purpose? Who was the real target?
  • in Kenya, widespread grief follows the murderous attack on Christians at Garissa University. When did religious identity become a way to identify victims instead of unifying your children?
All these events and many others empty our families, our societies, ourselves, and our world. Our need to join in the work of creation is all too evident.
But hovering in concern over all that needed to be filled and brought in order, you first created light. Even today light is still being created. We see light, light that we pray that together with you, we may call “good”:
  • in the possibility that the discussion and diplomacy may replace war and war profiteering in Iran and throughout the Middle East.
  • in robust conversations in public and private spheres in the United States undertaken in the hope that a larger justice, a more loving kindness, and a deeper humility may inform the entire nation.
  • in Cuba and the United States as they continue to plan steps of rapprochement in upcoming meetings in Panama.
We pray for light in our hearts and minds. We pray for light to see our way into a future that has less discrimination, less poverty, and less injustice.
The light of resurrection stirs Christians in this Easter season. The light of Passover liberation inspires Jews. The light of possibility shines for all your children throughout the world, dear God. Give us strength to follow the light as it leads us forward. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – almost Easter, 2015

It is the in-between time. At my church, we have just ended the Maundy Thursday service, remembered Jesus’ institution of the first Eucharist, been commanded to love as he loves us, washed one another’s feet, then stripped the altar. Tonight, Jesus will spend in agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, and we, his disciples, will try to watch with him – just one hour. Or maybe, like the original disciples, it will be too painful, too difficult, and we will fall asleep. Tomorrow, Jesus will die on the cross.  Tomorrow, before he dies, he will ask God to forgive those who crucified him. And by Sunday, we will be singing Alleluias, and celebrating (Easter egg hunts and feasts and all), the joy of the Resurrection.

We live – constantly – in the in-between times. Daily, the international news brings us back, with Jesus, to suffering, betrayal, loss, heartbreak, death. Daily, our faith, our hope, our trust calls us to live in the time when the Resurrection is already come, the victory won, it is God’s time, and God is among us.

Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again.

We pray with Resurrection joy and confidence…for love, peace, forgiveness, compassion and healing

  • In Kenya, where the militant islamic group al-Shabab took university students hostage, killing 147
  • In Syria, where Islamic State fighters seized most of a vast camp for Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of the capital city of Damascus, and an alliance of Islamist groups captured the northwestern city of Idlib, declaring that it would be run according to Sharia law
  • In Yemen, where Houthi rebels and their allies attacked the presidential palace in Aden following heavy clashes, while in the port city of Mukalla al-Qaeda militants stormed a prison and freed at least 150 detainees
  • Between other nations and Iran, following the announcement that an “outline agreement” on the future shape of Iran’s nuclear program has been reached
  • In Nigeria, where Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general who first came to power 30 years ago during a coup d’etat, has been elected president; outgoing leader Goodluck Jonathan has conceded and urged a peaceful

Light out of darkness, life born from death we pray: for our enemies and our friends, the power-hungry and the powerless, for the least and the greatest, in every nation on earth.

We pray with Resurrection joy and confidence…for new wisdom and cooperation in the healing of our planet

  • As heavy rains stir up fears of flooding in the Indian portion of Kashmir
  • As Vanuatu faces food insecurity in the wake of a monster cyclone
  • As Chile endures its 8th consecutive year of major drought
  • As experts predict that climate change will cause Bangladesh to have much saltier drinking water, increasing the risk of strokes and heart attacks
  • As California, U.S., declares a major drought and institutes a 25% cut in water usage

Light out of darkness, life born from death we pray: for the seas, air and dry land, and all that grows and lives therein.

Even in the midst of our greatest trials, still we live in the Resurrection.
Still we sing and pray:  Alleluia, Amen!

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014

Oh. Dear. God.
No.  Not again.
I thought I knew what I was going to write for tonight’s prayers.
And then I turned on the computer,
and read that in the United States, yet another unarmed Black man had been shot, dead, by a police officer.
Jesus.

I am speechless, beyond shock.
Everything I could have said, has already been said better,
by someone else.

Let me say it one more time:  Black lives matter.
Black innocent lives matter.
Black criminals’ lives matter.
No more killing.  No more police trained or mis-trained or untrained or unintentionally slanted
against our people. Any of our people.
Black lives matter.

We are told to voice our prayers to God as directly, as unrestrainedly, as in the Psalms.  To ask, exactly, specifically, for what we want.
We are told that when two or more of us are gathered in his name, Jesus will be among us.

Jesus, pray with us.  Hear us.

I want…I want…I want something that only exists in science fiction movies.  The ones where the aliens arrive and, horrified by all the violence by humans, impose a force field that prevents any weapon from firing. No guns. No grenades. No bombs. Something that will make every single person who is tempted to use a weapon out of fear, or anger, or betrayal, for revenge, for power, out of assurance that theirs is the right way or the only way or the God-declared way, in rebellion, in grief, in madness, in despair…something that will make every single person pause and feel everything their would-be victim will experience, and every bit of grief their victim’s family and friends and nation would feel.  I want an end to violence from Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen, threatening to kill a British-born U.S. hostage; from whichever group is responsible for the car bomb targeting a United Nations convoy that ended up killing three Somali security personnel; from the Islamic militants who attacked a quarry in the  northeastern part of Kenya and executed 36 innocent workers; from whoever set fire to a classroom in an Arab-Jewish school in Jerusalem, Israel, leaving anti-Arab slogans behind; and on and on and on.  I want it to stop.  Now.

Jesus, pray with us.  Hear us.

I want to believe…oh, how I want to believe…that when Pope Francis and 11 leaders representing the Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox, Anglican, Buddhist and Hindu faiths met this week at the Vatican, in Rome, and signed a declaration committing to work together to eradicate slavery worldwide by 2020… I want to believe that this will really make a difference.  I want to believe that by 2020, slavery will no longer exist in Mauritania, Uzbekstan, Haiti, Qatar, or India – the countries where modern-day slavery is most prevalent.  the estimated nearly 36 million people are currently caught in some form of modern slavery will be freed.  I want to believe that there will be a path back to wholeness for every single one of the estimated 36 million persons born into servitude, trafficked for sex work, trapped in debt bondage, or exploited for forced labor.  I want to believe that there will be a path back to wholeness for ex-gang members in El Salvador; for children forced to serve as soldiers in Central African Republic and Liberia; for the patients who have been brutalized and raped in Federico Mora (Mental) Hospital in Guatemala. I want to believe that there will be a path back to whole even for the abusers, the tyrants, the enslavers.

Jesus, pray with us.  Hear us.

I want…I want…I want to trust that in your time, Jesus – no, in OUR time – that we will be able to say, “All lives matter” without anyone feeling belittled or unheard, because all lives will be valued.  I want us to go confidently forth in compassion, in love.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.