Hebrews 13:1-3
1Continue in brotherly love. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them, and those who are mistreated as if you were suffering with them.
Holy God of life and love, God of outcast and downtrodden, God of refugee and safe harbor, hear our plea:
Sometimes it is unbearable to witness the brutality of this world. We stand paralyzed not knowing what to do, where to begin, how to help. Yet we know doing nothing is not an option.
As we sit comfortably sipping our cappuccino in our local coffee shop we try to drown out the cries of your children around this earth. In neighboring towns, even in our own communities. We try to ignore the rounding up and dismantling of families, we try to breathe through the inhalation of entire cultures of color, we so often avert our eyes and pretend that we haven't lost our humanity and that we are not powerless to an oppressive and broken system. Yet Creator, we are not heartless people, we just feel so inadequate to handle the task at hand.
You are the God who set the captives free, who parted a mighty sea, who let it rain manna from heaven, who knew us before we were formed in our mother's womb. You teach us how to love one another as we have been loved by you, which may be your biggest miracle yet. Oh God liberate us from fear which keeps us complacent and fill us with a mighty righteous indignation to take a stand against bigotry, hatred and the manifestation of pure evil in this world.
Creator we submit this to you in your many Holy Names and in the name of Jesus the Christ, may it be so.
Prayerfully submitted by Rev. Jennie M. Garcia-Kitch, Pastor, aChurch4me MCC, Illinois Hospice Chaplain, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
