On Sunday, January 10, Pastor Steve offered this prayer for our nation. (The written text of the prayer follows the video.) In light of the ongoing tensions we're facing, we felt as a community it would be good to take some time to reflect upon this prayer and humbly ask God to show each of us how we might need to repent and turn from our ways as we seek the peace of this land that we all love. 

Come Holy Spirit, be our guide. We need Your purifying fire and mighty wind.

Come Lord Jesus, have mercy upon us. We need Your grace and truth.

Come Almighty God, our Father in Heaven, bring Your light into our darkness.

Lord, I have – along with many others – been shaken by what happened in our nation’s capital this week. With a few day’s reflection, I found myself most disturbed that among the chaos, turmoil, and melee’ which took place in the Capitol building, there was a banner that had Your name on it. I wonder, Lord, how you feel about this?  

I wonder, Lord, because the attitudes and actions, the lawlessness and violence, and the mob “spirit” that seized those who trespassed the Capitol seem to be opposite of the way of Jesus.

The rage expressed in the faces, the attacks upon police, the loss of life, the breaking into private offices and defamation of chambers seem anti- the way of Christ.

Is this yet another thing that provokes Your anger? Calls for Your judgment? We fear your judgment.  But unlike our own, Your anger is restrained by Your steadfast love; Your judgment, right and just, leads to redemption. 

Arrest our pride.  Arrest our arrogance.

Lord, as I pray, I’m not trying to point fingers. The “quagmire of dysfunction” in our government is evident on all sides. I am praying for truth! We stand in the tension as people knowing we need forgiveness, but also the necessity of justice if we are really to have liberty.

I pray for all our elected officials from Washington D.C. to our local community that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of all people.  

I also fear that what we saw there (in Washington D.C.) is mirrored right here in our small corner of the world. Thankfully, not yet, with the same violence, but still... there is something about what we saw there that lies present within us.

Your Word says that what we sow, we will reap.  For a long, long time now we have sown seeds of fear, anger, contempt, division, suspicion, and rudeness.  We have given “devotion-like” attention and time to ideologies, political parties, and political arguments.  We have pursued political leaders as though they are saviors, when we know there is only One true Savior.

We have flirted with conspiracy theories, rationalizations, even theological justification.

We’ve given an abundance of our time to our preferred news feeds, when by comparison, we have spent little time seeking You and seeking first Your Kingdom. Only Your Kingdom will endure forever. Only You, are the Truth. We have trespassed on your first and second commandments!  Lord have mercy!

Lord, we still do not take to heart what Your scriptures say about our words.  As Senate Chaplain Black prayed: “Words matter and the power of life and death is in the tongue.”

We have trespassed on the ninth commandment.  We have ignored your instructions to “be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”  Instead, we are immediate in anger, quick and vicious to lash out with ridicule and contempt, and we refuse to listen to anyone with different perspectives.  Lord, have mercy!

Today, we enter worship this first Sunday after Epiphany – Baptism of the Lord Sunday. We come to reaffirm our own baptisms. Protect us from approaching this as trite or trivial or some ritual.  For we need to remember Whose we are, and who we are. Send now your Holy Spirit. Bring us a spirit of repentance. Help us to recalibrate and realign our allegiances and commitments in these vows. Send now your Holy Spirit. “Create in us clean hearts, put a new and right Spirit within us.” Please, O God, forgive our sin.

We turn to You! Save us from a spirit of despair. You alone are the Savior and Redeemer. You are full of grace and truth, and You are the only One who is Ruler of All. Open our ears to hear your Word and soften our hearts to receive... In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

References:
Senate Chaplain Barry Black’s prayer January 6, 2021
James 1:19
Psalm 51:10