“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” ~ 1 John 4:7
“Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” ~ 1 John 4:20-21
Beloved One, it is all about love. You are Love beyond our understanding, beyond limit, merciful and creating. Truly all things come from You. You give us life and all that we have and set us free to use our will, given by you, to choose whether to grow towards You in learning the depths and challenges, joys and sorrows of loving. Alternatively the choice is ours to assume Your position of God and make all decisions without love based on self-interest and power. Our ego reigns supreme and brokenness ensues.
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.
You call us to love as shown in Jesus the Christ by his life and being the Word from before Creation. Yet we so often choose which parts to hear or interpret according to our mind rather than that revealed by Your Holy Spirit.
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.
Boundaries. Borders. Invisible lines separating people, communities, nations. ‘We’ are this. ‘They’ are that. Perspectives defined by sound bites, propaganda, fear. False news, formerly known as ‘lies,’ destroys trust. And sometimes, when we are afraid, we may puff up our image of who ‘we’ are, and develop a deflated image of who ‘they’ are.
We can insert names, people and situations across the world only too easily in the silence….
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.
Help us instead, dear God, to see the world as You ARE CREATING it:
beautiful lands inhabited by brothers and sisters who are different, who are practicing caring for each other, each one filled with potential.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. ~ 1 John 4:18a
Lord teach us to love as You love us.
Help us to see across the divisions that we impose, to resist the urge to create ‘comfortable’ distances that make it easy to label the ‘other’ as strange. Help us to think outside our usual way of doing things or having a ‘default’ reaction or action. Help us to find new ways, which may well turn out to be better than what is our ‘accepted practice’.
- We give thanks for the courageous and restrained example of the Canadian policeman who peacefully detained the Toronto car mass murderer.
- We give thanks for the Hindu priest in Hyderabad, India, who made headlines for carrying a Dalit (formerly known as untouchable) man on his shoulders into the temple’s inner sanctum, to show people that everyone is equal in the eyes of God.
- We give thanks for the thousands in Germany – including people from the far right to the far left as well as the Turkish communities – who rallied in support of the Jewish community after an anti-Semitic attack earlier in the week.
- We give thanks for the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice that opened this week in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., commemorating the black victims of the more than 4,000 “racial terror” lynchings in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950, bringing this horrendous and rarely acknowledged legacy into public view and opening the way for conversation and reconciliation.
We remember all who grieve and mourn and fear at this time.
Lead us by the light of Your wisdom.
Lord God, we know that in the death and resurrection of Jesus all forces of outer darkness intent on our destruction have been defeated. We lift up those forces still so prevalent in this world to Your care and Healing, that they may be converted in the Light of Your merciful love, transformed and work for the Healing of all Creation.
May we know You in all our ways and trust Your promise to show us how to live and love for Your Name’s sake. We ask these prayers in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This week’s prayers are adapted from one written by Ann Gerondelis, an author, architect and educator from Atlanta, Georgia, that is published in her book “Open Our Eyes : Daily prayers for Advent”, Wild Goose Publications 2016.
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