The Lord’s Prayer in a Pandemic
(adapted from Jim Wallis, Sojourners, March 26, 2020 by Loretta Pain)
God of all mercy and grace.
Each week, we pray this prayer as your son, Jesus, taught us to pray. Today, we pray as a scattered community amid a worldwide pandemic.
Lord, we confess our sadness and our fears. We feel stuck, trapped inside, overwhelmed. Only your love and justice will bring your kingdom into our community right now. Inspire and sustain us to bring your kingdom to earth in this moment of crisis.
We pray especially for those fighting on the front lines of the pandemic — our first responders, nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals — to save as many lives as they can. Shelter them from this virus. Grant your healing mercies to those who will inevitably get sick. Speed the production and distribution of the protective and medical equipment they need. And help those of us not in the health care sector to do the most important thing we can to protect them — help us to stay home.
Lord, give us the strength not to hoard, but the courage to share what we have in order to provide daily bread for all. We know that we find you and each other at the table, so please make us hungry for larger tables. Even in times of social distancing, show us how our daily bread can bring us together.
You have forgiven our sins and trespasses and you have asked us to forgive others. Oh God, how do we treat others the way you have treated us? Lord have mercy, Lord teach us to have mercy — right now.
Forgive us for the temptation to retreat from our neighbors in this health crisis, taking social distance into social withdrawal from the most vulnerable.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever. Amen.
Lord, give us the faith and the courage to make this proclamation even in this time of a deadly virus.
Because we know what your kingdom on earth brings, give us the hope of that kingdom in our hearts, lives, communities, and the nations. Let that future we believe in help sustain us in the present, even when things we can’t control seem to dominate our lives. Lord, help us to believe that the virus, the threats, the injustices, and the fears they create are NOT in control and never will be,
“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, now and forever. Amen.”