Adrienne Elliott shared this prayer with us on 1st Sunday:
Triune God,
You know what we ought to pray for better than we do. In this time of great yearning for a world more expansive like your Kingdom, strengthen us with hope.
Not a hope that is shallow, with sentiments of “thoughts and prayers” but an embodied hope. Cast a vision of what is possible in the healing of polarities across political, ideological, and economic divides. Strengthen us to thoughtfully and openly pursue conversations that are difficult. Help us be good listeners and to boldly speak and act against the dehumanization of Empire and the ways the Church perpetuates Empire’s false hierarchical kingdom. Help us be agents of change in de-centering the US Church (and Christian Nationalism) as we are (re)formed by global examples of the Church on the margins radically caring for the Stranger, Outcast, and Other.
Help us discern how to be your hands and feet locally in our neighborhoods and city. Give us clarity that we might be and find living hope amidst this global pandemic -- we pray for those who are affected by unemployment, for our healthcare system, and those who are essential workers. We pray for continued education, confession, and sustained action for racial justice as we continue following the lead of Black activists, educators, and healers -- especially those who are LGBTQ+. God of Memory, we long for a true accounting of history: for the rights of Indigenous people as original caretakers, water and land protectors, to be remembered and right relations made. We are grateful for the ways we are able to practice a Kingdom economy with others in providing tangible needs for those who are housing insecure, hungry, or out of work.
Gracious God, these and so many more are what we live and pray in hope for. We ask for your loving healing and liberation. May it all be so.
Now, hear this Blessing of Hope by Jan Richardson:
BLESSING OF HOPE
So may we know
the hope
that is not just
for someday
but for this day—
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us:
hope not made
of wishes
but of substance,
hope made of sinew
and muscle
and bone,
hope that has breath
and a beating heart,
hope that will not
keep quiet
and be polite,
hope that knows
how to holler
when it is called for,
hope that knows
how to sing
when there seems
little cause,
hope that raises us
from the dead—
not someday
but this day,
every day,
again and
again and
again.