We are together in prayer, O God, having faith that you hear both the words we speak and the groans of our spirit for which we cannot find words. I am to pray for encouragement, Precious Lord, but for what shall we seek your encouragement.
Shall we ask for encouragement to seek peace, even at the expense of justice? Surely not – for we have seen what type of peace this is and it is not of you. Maybe we should be encouraged to remember that Jesus once said he did not come to bring peace but a sword – not a sword of violence, but a sword of justice and righteousness which cuts apart the death dealing ways of this world.
Shall we pray for encouragement to preach and live a gospel that offends no one? Surely not – for as Archbishop Romero said, “What good is a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a gospel that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin? What kind of gospel is that?” So we ask for the encouragement to proclaim and live the gospel of the one who was crucified for challenging the powers-that-be and for living in the inclusive, justice seeking love of your holy realm. May we be encouraged in our willingness to go with our Lord all the way to cross, so that we might know the power of his resurrection.
Shall we pray for the encouragement to hurry and get through this time of the pandemic and the social unrest so that life can get back to normal ? Surely not – for many things we are all experiencing now – isolation, uncertainty, fear – these are the norm for too many in this land of bounty and blessing. So in this moment, we pray for the encouragement to hear your voice calling us, to feel the movement of your spirit prodding us, to not go back to the old normal, but move forward to a new way of being.
Shall we pray for the encouragement to be a color blind society? Surely not, O God, for in your creative artistry you have given us all the colors of our skin; you sculpted the features of our faces; you fashioned the texture of our hair. We pray for the encouragement to see humanity in all of its diversity as an expression of who you are. We pray for the encouragement to see those who are black and to love them just as they are. We pray for the encouragement to see our Native brothers and sisters, our Latinx brothers and sisters, our Asian brothers and sisters, our white brothers and sisters, our disabled brothers and sisters, our LGBTQ + brothers and sisters and all who fit anywhere on that spectrum, we pray for the encouragement to see all others in the fullness of who they are and to love them for who they are.
We pray for encouragement. The encouragement not to run from the trouble at hand. We give thanks for our brother, Congressman John Lewis, who led the march across the bridge at Selma as a young man more than a half century ago. John Lewis has told us that some of this trouble is good trouble, it is necessary trouble, it’s the kind of trouble that has to happen if this world is going to move closer to being a place where your will is done, which is our prayer every week and hopefully every day. God encourage us so that as long as there is breath in our bodies we will preach this gospel of inclusive love, of boundary breaking justice, and of exceptional kindness. Let us preach this gospel with our words and with our lives. Amen.