Prayer for Pentecost

God, I am frustrated today

And to be honest --- I don't even know what or how to pray

Today, we celebrate Pentecost Sunday

The day in which you breathed life into your church

The day you filled us with your spirit and sent us out into the world to join with you in creating a just and caring world.

And yet today

and yet today lord our world in screaming in pain

100,000 of your children have died from COVID-19

A majority of them persons of color

And we celebrated by going out to eat

Finally tasting some freedom after this long winter of quarantine

May we pause today and remember all those who have died

All those who have been ill

All those who have been on the front lines protecting us

And may we honor their lives by humbling ourselves and wearing a mask to protect others.

May we slow down and remember that we are responsible for one another during this crisis.

That is what PENTECOST is all about.

Recognizing that together --- we are the family of God.

But this world screams not only for those who have lost their lives in this pandemic

It also is screaming for all the lives lost because we refuse to see one another as brothers and sisters.

Because we refuse to recognize our common humanity and won't help up our brown and black sisters and brothers.

We are saddened by the destruction that we have seen take place the last few days as we witnessed --- in front of our eyes --- the murder of one of your children.

We are more upset about the destruction of property than we are the continued lynchings of our sisters and brothers.

Michael Brown

Freddy Gray

Laquan McDonald

Eric Harris

Walter Scott

Tamir Rice

Sandra Bland

Breonna Taylor

Ahmaud Arbery

George Floyd

My heart is breaking lord --- for your Church has failed your children

We tell our black brothers and sisters that protesting is wrong

Whether that protest is taking a knee at a football game

or

peacefully protesting in Minneapolis

forgive our lack of caring

Teach us ways that we can make a difference and stop the racism that is so prevalent in our society

Help us to be honest with ourselves --- as we struggle with understanding the power that our privileges give to us.

May we begin to glimpse the world through the eyes of our sisters and brothers who are afraid to run through their neighborhoods simply because of the color of their skin.

Help us to understand the frustration, that our brothers and sisters feel, when they are told that whatever form of protest that they engage in is wrong

I am tired lord --- and I don't know where to turn

I lift my eyes up to the hills, but too often I see our segregated present, our economic apartheid --- instead of your kingdom 

On this Pentecost Sunday --- I pray that the breath of your Holy Spirit will move among us and convict us of our sin.

Help us to acknowledge our role in this original sin of our country.

For until we confess, we cannot repent, 

And until we repent we cannot join you in building the kingdom you promise.

Give us new eyes that we might actually seek your will --- instead of our own.

Help us to be your church and give us the temerity to live this prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

Prayer for Refugees

Loving God, you invite us to humble service.  But we confess that too often our service is not for your Kingdom, but for the kingdoms of this world.  We don’t put you first; we don’t strive for your justice.

Help us Lord, and heal us.

Show us what it means to be a follower of you in the United States of America in 2017.  Give us a vision on what you desire of our lives.

We have to be honest Lord; we are struggling --- struggling with the siren call of our society.  A call to protect, isolate, separate and judge one another and to build kingdoms of this world and too often the noise drowns out the the call of your kingdom.

We hear you asking us: have we fed the hungry, have we clothed the naked, have we visited the imprisoned, have we cared for the widow and the refugee.

Lord, we know what you require of us --- and we have fallen short.

We know that you were a refugee once --- that you were forced to flee from Bethlehem and resettle in Egypt.  We are reminded time and time again that you had nowhere to lay your head.

As followers of Jesus, we are to be a people who seek justice, not only for us and those like us, but for all of God’s children.  Without justice, the message of Jesus is hollow and self serving.

Help us Lord, to examine our own lives --- to admit where we have fallen short.  And to seek forgiveness.

Help us to recognize who we are --- but more importantly WHO’s we are.

Only when we let the spirit rain free in our lives, can we become the individuals, and the community you desire us to be.

Help us to claim the power of Jesus.

Help us to claim his ability to heal --- and to forgive.

And help us Lord, to continue to follow that little child, that vulnerable infant, that had no safe place to lay his head.

If refugees, like you, can’t find a safe home in the church --- what have we become?

We pray these things in the name of Jesus.  Amen