05/20/2021
Prayer from the Anti-Racism Committee at the meeting of the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley, May 20, 2021.
Holy One, whose Spirit is poured out upon all flesh,
whose children you empower to prophesy,
whose youth see visions and whose elders dream dreams,
we cry out to you.
Where else shall we go, O Savior? All else has failed us.
You alone have the words of eternal life.
You came that we might have life more abundantly,
but that abundance eludes too many of us, O God, and hate and bigotry are ever present.
Our news cycles are filled with despair.
We see surging violence against Asians and Asian Americans -- women shot down in the workplace in Atlanta, elders assaulted on city streets from San Francisco to New York.
We see continuing violence against unarmed Black citizens and the systemic injustice that undergirds it. We speak two of the most recent names: Daunte Wright and Ma’Khia Bryant. We add their names to the ongoing litany: Breonna, Ahmaud, George, Eric, Sandra, Jordan, Trayvon, Tamir, Emmett, and the many others in far too long a list. This great cloud bears witness to persistent injustice.
We confess that we are slow to confront our complicity and investment in white supremacy and dominance. We live in a world in which Indigenous, Black and Brown siblings are expected and compelled to offer forgiveness at a discount. Far too often, life continues as if nothing has happened while gaping wounds are still open. When the cheeks are turned, they are met with another hand to the face, gun to the head, or knee to the throat.
Forgiveness is too infrequently met with repentance.
This, O God, we name as sin. It is our sin.
Many of us lament and strive against that sin.
Help and empower us to continue that work with diligence and faith.
Show us how to follow in the footsteps of those who came before us, who have shown us the way. Especially we remember with gratitude the Freedom Riders, including those from our own number, who with courage and at great risk sought equal rights for all.
When our eyes do not see the gravity of racial injustice,
Shake us from our slumber and open our eyes, O Lord.
When out of fear we are frozen into inaction,
Give us a spirit of courage, O Lord.
When we try our best but say the wrong things,
Give us a spirit of humility, O Lord.
When the news dies down,
Give us a lasting spirit of solidarity, O Lord.
When it becomes easier to point fingers outward,
Help us to examine our own hearts, O Lord.
In this way, let the fires of uprising give way to the fires of your Spirit, where your people hear the Good News of your kingdom, hear it with joy, and make haste to take part in it.
Let us release our attachment to our current world order and walk bravely into the world you intend for us, even and especially when it costs us something.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
