Listen, O Israel, the LORD is God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4-5
LISTEN! The prophet Isaiah began this passage with the Hebrew word, “Shema”- LISTEN. So, why aren’t we listening, Divine One? Why are we- the haves of this world-so often closing our ears to the cries of our siblings throughout the planet- cries for food, cries for compassion, cries for justice?
Extreme hunger, indeed starvation, now affects 350 million human beings worldwide, with forty-nine million on the brink of famine. Forty-nine million! Hunger brought on by climate change, by war, by the failure of humanity to share our resources equitably.
We lift up before you- even as we ask you to open our closed hearts and eyes- the nations of this world with the greatest food insecurity: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gaza, Haiti, Mali, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. We lift up the millions in danger of starvation in South Africa, following an El Nino-caused drought which has destroyed any hope of harvest. We lift up before you the war-torn nations of Ukraine, Gaza, Ethiopia, and Syria-and every nation in which conflict rages, disrupting life, bringing both death and destruction.
Hear our prayers for the leaders of the nations, that they may be moved toward action for peace, toward compassion, toward taking responsibility, and away from one-up-manship and power struggles, from anything which divides instead of unites.
Open our eyes, Holy One; open our ears, our hearts to the very real needs of those all around us. And keep us ever mindful of our privilege. What was it that Jesus said? “When you care for the least of these, my siblings, you care for me.” God of us all, since so many of us are among the “wealthy” of this world, prod us to ask ourselves, “When have I ever been hungry? When have I ever been unhoused? When have I reached out to those who are- across the world and in my own neighborhood who have so much less?”
May we hear your voice, through your Word, through your prophets, through Jesus the Christ, crying out to us, LISTEN! And then, may we DO SOMETHING!
Amen. Let it be so!
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