Someone asked that I write a prayer of intercession to be used in their congregational liturgy for Sunday morning that addressed the division we see in our current American cultural climate. This is what I wrote. Text is bold is meant for congregational response.
Our Father, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
You have called us to seek first the Kingdom of God and your righteousness. We pray for our country, this place where we live, and where so much that is important in our shared life will now change in ways we cannot predict.
The peoples of this land are stressed and angry, afraid and divided. We have strong opinions and not enough understanding; we take sides, point fingers of blame, refuse to listen to others and shout louder ourselves.
We pray for our government, and all those we have elected and appointed to represent the interests of our country and our people. Loving Father of us all, that is one of our greatest fears -- we are starting to choose who are our people. We Christians are just as guilty; we use words as insults and slogans without creating grace and reconciliation. We have each used used phrases to war with one another rather than be agents of your reconciliation in the world.
We pray that you will give wisdom and humility to those who have power; undermine the pride and arrogance that often closes off good ways forward; enable those who speak for us to do so with truth and integrity, and to refuse acceptance of lies as if the truth doesn't matter.
God of the nations, our country must now make far reaching decisions. Guide and direct us into the paths of peace; stem the flow of invective and hostility; bring minds together to find understanding and a way ahead that enables justice, the common good, and care for each other. Our world has known terrible wars, and these past 75 years we have lived peaceably and constructively. Whatever the outcomes of these next weeks, may we find ways of living in friendship as partners rather than as competitors and rivals.
We desire to seek your Kingdom first. Grant us grace and courage so to do.
Father, in times of crisis and anxiety your prophets spoke words of comfort and truth. May we hear and obey their words, and make those words our prayers in these next weeks:
Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever rolling stream.
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare
He has shown every one of you what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Teach us and enable us to go on being a nation which is a place of welcome and refuge for others; lead us as a people to a new understanding of our place among the nations; bring us to repentance and changed ways; to be less selfish and more generous; to be less afraid of others and more welcoming; to be less angry and more peaceable; to turn down the volume of our own shouting and listen more carefully to what others say, and think, and feel; to be impatient with lies and defenders of truth.
As your church, we pray you will forgive our own part in the divisiveness, by ways we speak, how we treat others, or when we refuse to listen to those we disagree with; forgive the faintness of our light and the lost savor of our salt; make us peacemakers and seekers of justice; fill us with passion for a society where people are safe, where compassion is on the increase, where we learn again the joy of kindness, and in which we walk the way of Jesus with arms open in welcome to the stranger, hands reaching out to the hurting, and feet walking in the narrow ways of loving God and neighbor for Jesus' sake.
We desire to seek your Kingdom first. Grant us grace and courage so to do.
All this we ask in the Name of the One who makes friends of enemies and brothers and sisters of strangers, even as we join together in one voice to pray the prayer that he has taught us to pray ...
Our Father who art in heaven ...
Our Father, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
You have called us to seek first the Kingdom of God and your righteousness. We pray for our country, this place where we live, and where so much that is important in our shared life will now change in ways we cannot predict.
The peoples of this land are stressed and angry, afraid and divided. We have strong opinions and not enough understanding; we take sides, point fingers of blame, refuse to listen to others and shout louder ourselves.
We pray for our government, and all those we have elected and appointed to represent the interests of our country and our people. Loving Father of us all, that is one of our greatest fears -- we are starting to choose who are our people. We Christians are just as guilty; we use words as insults and slogans without creating grace and reconciliation. We have each used used phrases to war with one another rather than be agents of your reconciliation in the world.
We pray that you will give wisdom and humility to those who have power; undermine the pride and arrogance that often closes off good ways forward; enable those who speak for us to do so with truth and integrity, and to refuse acceptance of lies as if the truth doesn't matter.
God of the nations, our country must now make far reaching decisions. Guide and direct us into the paths of peace; stem the flow of invective and hostility; bring minds together to find understanding and a way ahead that enables justice, the common good, and care for each other. Our world has known terrible wars, and these past 75 years we have lived peaceably and constructively. Whatever the outcomes of these next weeks, may we find ways of living in friendship as partners rather than as competitors and rivals.
We desire to seek your Kingdom first. Grant us grace and courage so to do.
Father, in times of crisis and anxiety your prophets spoke words of comfort and truth. May we hear and obey their words, and make those words our prayers in these next weeks:
Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever rolling stream.
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare
He has shown every one of you what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Teach us and enable us to go on being a nation which is a place of welcome and refuge for others; lead us as a people to a new understanding of our place among the nations; bring us to repentance and changed ways; to be less selfish and more generous; to be less afraid of others and more welcoming; to be less angry and more peaceable; to turn down the volume of our own shouting and listen more carefully to what others say, and think, and feel; to be impatient with lies and defenders of truth.
As your church, we pray you will forgive our own part in the divisiveness, by ways we speak, how we treat others, or when we refuse to listen to those we disagree with; forgive the faintness of our light and the lost savor of our salt; make us peacemakers and seekers of justice; fill us with passion for a society where people are safe, where compassion is on the increase, where we learn again the joy of kindness, and in which we walk the way of Jesus with arms open in welcome to the stranger, hands reaching out to the hurting, and feet walking in the narrow ways of loving God and neighbor for Jesus' sake.
We desire to seek your Kingdom first. Grant us grace and courage so to do.
All this we ask in the Name of the One who makes friends of enemies and brothers and sisters of strangers, even as we join together in one voice to pray the prayer that he has taught us to pray ...
Our Father who art in heaven ...