Tomorrow is
election day in the United States. There
is so much sitting, stirring, and swirling in the air around us. There is fear and frustration we feel we are
inhaling with every breath. There is
uncertainty and confusion. There is
angst, anxiety, anger, and almost every emotion available exhaled with each
breath, felt in each keystroke posted onto social media. The truth is, we may not know the results of
the election for several days as election workers count ballots and verify
results. It is hard, holy work. Today and tomorrow, I want to invite us into
a time of prayer for our country. I
invite you to be open to God’s presence.
We have been listening to the prophet Isaiah for the last several
weeks. This was intentional and
prayerful ~ he was brash and bold in the face of chaos and challenge. Isaiah lived during Exile, when the people of
God could smell the Cheetos on the breath of the Babylonian army surrounding
them. The people of God would be
defeated. The temple would be ransacked,
left in rumble and ruin. Life would be
turned upside down. Faith seemed foolish
or shattered or at least dented, as leaders were carted off to live in Babylon
where they sat and wept. How can you
sing to God in a foreign land? How can
you sing to God when everything has gone to you know where in a
handbasket? How can you sing to God when
all the exterior evidence of goodness and grace have been shattered like glass
that has fallen on the tile floor? Those
ancient questions are still our questions. How do we sing to God when the debris on our
curbs and scars on the landscape from trees uprooted from hurricanes are a
daily reminder of what we have gone through?
How do we sing to God when we are exhausted mentally, physically, and
emotionally? When wars still rage on ~ with
violence begetting violence? When we
struggle to love our enemies as Jesus calls us not just as a good consideration
but a commandment? Please pray with me:
God, we pray for
our country tomorrow. We pray for people
as they vote that election spaces will be safe, and people can exercise this
right. We pray for election workers who
may face difficult and demanding situations, because of the anger and
angst. We pray for the leaders of our country;
those who are running and those who will continue to serve. O God, we lament that perhaps what unites us
the most right now is our dissatisfaction and dismay and distrust of each
other. What unites us now is fear of the
other. What seems to be acceptable is
our cynicism and criticism and calling out everything that is wrong. We lament that we lack courage to weep. We confess that we prefer a confident lie to
a messy truth. We confess that we judge
and throw stones on social media and treat each other as less than created in
Your image. Have mercy on us, O
Christ. You call us, Jesus, not just to
believe in you, like it some kind of test, but to let You, O Christ, abide in
us. Let Your gospeling wisdom interrupt,
intercede, and inform our hearts, words and very lives every moment this
week. In the strong name of the One who
was with the people of God in good times and bad, through Exodus and Exile, and
everything in-between. Amen.
