A Prayer After Charlottesville

A Prayer After Charlottesville

I do not have the words.  I do not have the words to express my anger and grief at seeing swastikas and and klansmen marching down the streets of Charlottesville.  I do not have words for my disgust at a President who ultimately refuses to condemn the evil that Nazism and White Supremacy unapologetically profess.  I have no words for Jerry Falwell Jr.’s blaspheming silence who at times I hear more loudly than the President’s and pundit’s foul, Anti-Christ words.  And I have no words for the confusion and rage I feel as I watch people’s social media presence defend, justify, or talk around the implications of this “Unite the Right” march.  Frankly, I am furious to the point of tears.  I do not even know how to engage the subject at this moment.  In the light of that, I would like to offer a prayer…

 

God Creator,
Christ Redeemer,
Spirit Sanctifier,

Where does my rage go?
Where does our rage go?

How quickly to we forget history.
How quickly, oh Lord, do we forget the evil committed under those symbols?
Under klan flags and swastikas.

Christ our Savior,
forgive me for I have no words.
But words I must find.

We have permitted evil through our silence.
On behalf of silent Christians,
I beg your Spirit to call us back to you,

or as the fig tree which bears no fruit,
dig us up by the root and cast us into the fire,
that we may no more pollute Your gospel
with quiet complacence,
ambivalence, or hate.

We need You to gives us the humility to find our voice,
To stand along side the marginalized as Christ did,
as Christ does.
We have no need to ask 
“who are the lepers and Samaritans of our age?”
We know them.
And we make excuses for their oppression.

Remind us, oh Liberator
that Empire oppresses all those under its heel.

And give us courage to call out the evils marching in Charlottesville by name:
Neo-Nazism
The Ku Klux Klan
White Supremacy
the Alt-Right.

And as You beckoned through the voice of Your Prophets
to the people of Israel,
give us words and humility
to seek repentance and forgiveness of our bloody and wicked history.

Lord, give us voices,
and help us give a voice to others.

May we not dwell on our own safety and security,
but defend Your Image residing in all Humanity.

Spirit be our Guide,
Christ be our Model,
God be our King.

Amen.

 

Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord:
“What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me,and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”

-Jeremiah 2:4

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