Introduction to the prayer:  (If prayer is used in a worship service, the people, the congregation, read aloud the bold print.)

Just over a month ago, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, The Right Reverend Mariann Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington D.C., USA  delivered a sermon at the Washington Cathedral as a prelude to the next four years.  She closed by offering a plea to the new President of the United States on behalf of all those frightened by the ways he was threatening to wield his power. Bishop Budde and President Trump made eye contact. She took a breath, and she spoke: “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

May we pray:
Loving God, we echo Bishop Budde’s plea: “have mercy.”
It is a call we know because for generations others have passed it along to us.
The bishop’s urgent prayer echoes Micah’s . . .
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice,
and to love mercy, and to walkhumbly with your God?
And the psalmist’s . . . Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
It echoes the conversation that Jesus had with a lawyer:“Which of these three do you think was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” And the lawyer answered: ‘The one who showed him mercy.”
God, we realize that Budde’s intention was to remind President Trump that Christ is present in the sacred life of each of God’s children. Beneath her words to the President about being merciful to the children in the LGBTQ community and to those immigrant families or individuals who live in fear that they will be separated from those they love most, we heard the familiar words of Jesus speaking to us. We trust these words, for they are not seeking political power; they seek compassionand care:
“For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.”
Lord, have mercy.
“I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink.” 
Lord, have mercy.
“I was naked, and you clothed me.”
Lord, have mercy.
“I was sick, and you took care of me.”  
Lord, have mercy.
“I was in prison, and you visited me.”
Lord, have mercy.
Merciful God, those who sought you when you walked on this earth were often desperate, disillusioned, marginalized by society.  Merciful God, so many who share life with us today are vulnerable, scared, lacking essential opportunities of education and healthcare, and living in the best way they can on the edges of our communities. They claim any glimpse of hope they can for their exhausted bodies and broken spirits.
O, God, empower us to care in your name, despite the USA President’s inattention to your words. Use us to embody your love and goodness, protecting the most vulnerable in our society from those who seek powersand principalities outside the realm of your peace.  Grounding ourselves in the strength of community, motivated to preserve what matters most – pure love, not relationships dependent on transactions that are measured in exchange for wealth or influence.
Lord, have mercy upon us that we may show your love. even as you call us to love.
God, we live in a wounded world. The plague of dismantling thousands of programs supported by the United States government leaves us stunned for those who worked at jobs that evaporated at a moment’s notice, though many had worked years in these positions and had recently been awarded stellar evaluations. So many who worked in these jobs fully devoted their lives to their work. Can trust ever be rebuilt? The list of those who need assurance of your mercy grows longer each day.
Those who work at Associated Press have been slighted beyond their every right to participate in freedom of the press because of a stylistic distinction about the Gulf of Mexico. Our hearts break when we think of the systems, and the people, that had finally known diversity, equality, and inclusion. From science to the protection of the environment, from airline safety to finance oversight, from education to healthcare, from agriculture to hundreds more systems, no part of a country’s communal life seems to escape this cruel and destructive hand of a government against itself, it’s reckless dismantling of parts of a functioning democracy.
Lord, have mercy upon us wherever we live.
God, those who worked at the US federal agency know as the US Aid for International Development. included thousands of people skilled in the details of humanitarian work and in cross-cultural friendships. Programs around the globe were forced to shut down immediately, including those that controlled malaria in 24 African nations. Lord, have mercy upon them.
A promising decades-old program, countering the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam. suddenly left people in volatile wastelands.  Lord, have mercy upon them.
Back-up heating systems in schools and hospitals in Ukraine were stopped by a casual word from Washington.  Lord, have mercy upon them.
Suddenly, life-saving programs were frozen for 145,000 vulnerable womenin Afghanistan who are in need of safe houses, mental health counseling, health care, and vocational training.  Lord, have mercy upon all our sisters and brothers around the globe.
God, the conversations this week concerning Ukraine shock us, given the country’s three years in a war it didn’t choose or start.
So many around the world are longing for a lasting peace for the people of Gaza and the people of Israel. O God, for the lack of food and the destruction of hospitals for the lost and wounded children beneath the rubble of the lands of Palestine, for the places people call home in a way most of us can never completely understand, hear our cries of lament!
When will those with wisdom, experience, cultural sensitivity be given a space to speak? Representatives on the world stage sometimes seem to voice their opinions so quickly, casually, and brazenly, without a knowledge of the world’s history, it seems.
We cannot live in relationships in this world unless we seek your direction, caring for others through your power and sharing your love and mercy for our wounded world.  Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.
Amen