Prayer for the Human Family

Unfortunately, I did not see the video from our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Michael Curry, before worship this past Sunday morning so I was not aware of his request that we offer prayers for our country and ourselves.  While we did pray, it was not quite as elegant as the one suggested by PB Michael.  Granted, God does not judge prayer on style, but because it is so fitting, I’ve reprinted it here for your edification and use:

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP p. 815)

It has been an emotional week, first with the initial traumas and now with mourning.  My own emotional state has been uncomfortably stretched.  While I don’t intend this blog to be a format for book reports, it is important that I mention that my reactions to the recent shootings have been greatly affected by reading Ta Nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me. Even though Mr. Coates and I are around the same age, that is about the only thing we have in common.  His experience of the world, especially the United States, is so different from my own that there seems to be an impassable chasm between us – which is his point.  Being who I am, I want to bridge that gap, change the circumstances, create a new world that changes that reality.  Part of that desire is driven by my own place of privilege, which is hard to reconcile and even harder to know how to move forward.

The truth is I will never know what it is like to live as a person of color in the US. While I have experienced a very limited amount of discrimination because of my gender, it in no way compares to the systematic racism that pervades our common life.  It is time to be honest about white privilege and not be defensive, but rather use that power to affect real change.

I am thrilled to be a part of an interfaith group of clergy in Middlesex County that is beginning to organize ourselves with the help of Faith in New Jersey, a community organizing group dedicated to helping grass-roots initiatives seeking social and economic justice.  Religious organizations have been very good at offering charity.  We follow the mandate from Jesus Christ himself to feed the hunger, clothe the naked and heal the sick.  However, so much effort goes into those activities that there is usually not enough time and energy left to offer the prophetic voice to the system that created the need for such charity in the first place.  Our intention is to educate ourselves on the system and see where it is failing to do the work it is intended to do, and then change the system.

One of the foundational truths of our country is the separation between Church and State, but that does not allow the Church to abdicate its place in society.  Rather it calls the Church to offer the prophetic voice when the State does not fulfill its intended purpose – creating and maintaining a just society.  The Church’s moral and ethical motivation is grounded in Jesus’ summary of the Law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Regardless of your political affiliation, this is our firm and common foundation.  If the system, intentionally or unintentionally, treats our neighbor as less than ourselves, it needs to change. 
 
In the weeks and months to come, I will let you know more of what Faith in New Jersey is doing and how you can be involved to help affect such change.  I hope you will be willing to engage in this endeavor in order to help to create a more just society and, indeed, seek the realm (kingdom) of God.

In Christ,

Rev. Valerie+

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