I offer this weekly #LetUsPray as a way to stay anchored amidst the turmoil of the day. Paid subscribers have access to liturgical resources and sermon prompts based on the week's readings from The Revised Common Lectionary and/or The Narrative Lectionary.
This past week I have seen more violence and brutality across my socials. While I am grateful I have not become completely numb and these scenes still shock me, sometimes I simply want to look away. The thing is, some people do not have the privilege to look away because the pain and suffering are being inflicted upon them. This part of the Faith Montage both names the hurt that many experience as well as the hurt we may inflict upon others.
If we are going to live lives of healing, we must not look away.
The Gathered Who Are Hurting #LetUsPray
Let us pray —
But these called, sacred, gathered bodies are HURTING. From ancestors and saints past to misfits and strangers of today, we live in a world that feeds on destruction, rewards hatred, reinforces oppression, dismisses grief, denies accountability, and manipulates vulnerability —and often in the name of God.
We have lost our way. We have turned and been turned away from God’s intentions and hopes for humanity. We have brought pain upon my body, your body, our bodies. Born from anger, disappointment, and mourning,
As we desecrate the earth, God weeps. As we equate light as good and dark as bad, God weeps. As we pursue profit and perpetuate poverty, God weeps. As we criminalize suffering and incarcerate siblings to invisibility, God weeps. As we fortify empire and exploit humanity, God weeps. As we legislate bodies and deny human agency, God weeps. As we mock emotions and renounce empathy, God weeps. As we choose individualism and abandon the common good, God weeps. As we worship “normal” and demonize difference, God weeps. As we benefit from unjust systems and justify their existence, God weeps. As we deny privilege and default to indifference, God weeps. As we choose apathy and forsake the body politic, God weeps. As we profit from disparity and blame others for their desperation, God weeps. As we deny the sins of our past and reinforce institutions of oppression, God weeps.
And as we embolden violence upon bodies who bear darker skin, who go unheard, who believe differently, who love who they love, who are deemed weak, who are silenced, who are unarmed, who are not in control, who broaden gender, who are gifted to our care, who are the “enemy,” who are different, God weeps.
We resist and refuse to lament and confess to that which holds us back from fully knowing God. Born again and again from anger, disappointment, and mourning, God weeps. And yet . . .
— Amen.
May we sit with the hurt.
Peace,
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