Hear the Cry of Your Children

A little prayer I’ve been working on to use in worship.

Almighty God,

We pray for those who are sick, those who are ill, those who are physically injured,

Hear the cry of your children.

We pray for those without food, without a home, without a family, without love,

Hear the cry of your children.

We pray for those whose despair is overwhelming, who have lost all hope, who have forgotten what it is like to taste your salvation,

Hear the cry of your children.

We pray for those who can’t seem to catch a break, who have the burdens piling up with no end in sight,

Hear the cry of your children.

We pray for those who are oppressed, who are broken, who are suffering, who have lost their humanity,

Hear the cry of your children.

We pray for those who find themselves in exile, for those who search but do not find, for those who knock only to find a door shut in their face,

Hear the cry of your children.

We pray for those who have trouble getting up in the morning, for those that despise life, for those who have addictions that are strangling them,

Hear the cry of your children.

We pray for those who know hatred better than hospitality, war better than peace, revenge better than grace,

Hear the cry of your children.

 

The world is broken. The world is a mess. The world is not what you created it to be.

May the cries of your children be heard by us.

May the cries pierce our ears even with our radios blaring, our iPods on shuffle, and the TV on.

May the cries encroach upon our lives, overcoming the fences and walls and windows that we construct to keep those cries and those people out.

May the cries of hunger pangs nauseate us as we stop for our third latte of the day, our fourth Pepsi or Diet Coke, or our fifth Snickers bar.

May the cries of brokenness shatter the perfect facades we put up to impress our family, our friends, our neighbors, our bosses, and our pastors.

May the cries of oppression infiltrate us, the perpetrators sustaining the very systems guilty of that oppression.

May the cries of your children not be foreign to us, the body of Christ.

May we be the body of Christ broken for the world.

May we be the blood of Christ shed for the world. 

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Hear the cries of your children, O God, this day and forevermore.

Amen.

The Justice Creed

Brian McLaren put together this piece entitled, The Justice Creed.

We believe that the living God is just
And that the true and living God loves justice.
God delights in just laws and rejoices in just people.
God sides with those who are oppressed by injustice,
And stands against oppressors.
God is grieved by unjust people and the unjust systems they create and sustain.
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, and
God’s kingdom belongs to those willing to be persecuted for the sake of justice.
To God, justice is a weighty thing which can never be ignored.

We believe that Jesus, the Liberating King, came to free humanity from injustice
And to display the justice of God,
In word and deed, in life, death, and resurrection.
The justice which God desires, Jesus taught, must surpass that of the hypocrites,
For the justice of God is a compassionate justice,
Rich in mercy and abounding in love
For the last, the least, the lost, and the outcast.
On his cross, Jesus drew the injustice of humanity into the light,
And there the heartless injustice of human empire met
The reconciling justice of the  kingdom of God.
The resurrection of Jesus proclaims that the true justice of God,
Naked, vulnerable, and scarred by abuse, is stronger
Than the violent injustice of humanity, armed with weapons, conceit,
deceit, and lies.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is here, now,
Convicting the world of sin and justice,
Warning that God’s judgment will come on all that is unjust.
We believe that the Kingdom of God is justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Empowered by the Spirit, then, we seek first God’s kingdom and God’s justice,
For the world as it is has not yet become the world as God desires it to be.
And so we live, and work, and pray,
Until justice rolls down like water,
And flows strong and free like a never-failing stream.
For we believe that the living God is just
And that the true and living God loves justice.
Amen.

Prayer for the Week

In my continued practice of the Daily Office, the prayer for this past week was fantastic so I thought I would share it with you.

Most Loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who cares for us: Preserve me from the faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from me the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.