A Prayer for These Days, October 15, 2023
God of hope, peace, joy, and love, we believe deep in our being, that you created all good things, and continue to renew and refresh them. Your holy scripture and the witness of your Son, Jesus the Christ, proclaims that reality beyond the heavens.
Yet, in these past number of days, our vision of you and your kingdom is clouded by hate, horrendous violence, despair, and evidence of the worst that your human children can do. Even though we try to live out hope and forgiveness, we feel anger and thoughts of retribution rise up within us. So, as we sit in a time of dust and ashes, wailing and weeping for children, women, and civilians who have been the victims of the worst atrocities, we wait for a word, a sign, and even a tiny seed of hope.
We also pray with and for the soldiers and leaders of all lands. None of these, except for a vile few, wish that others should suffer at the hands of their decisions and actions. As our scriptures declare that there is weeping in Ramah, mothers are mourning the loss of their children.
And yet, your word today from the Apostle Paul, calls for rejoicing and setting aside of anxiety, praying without ceasing, and yearning for your peace that passes all understanding. God, when will it be so? It is hard to lift our heads and our voices. We can barely lift our hands to pray. Yet, we trust, we believe, and we seek your courage, to change the world. Use us, O loving God, to step forward into your promised kingdom, even when all we experience is death and destruction. As always we pray, not my will, but yours be done, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Reverend Randy N. Sherrill