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.
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