As much as I've wanted to spend time with these wonderful texts this week (and have been privileged to do so), it has been hard to pull myself away from the texts of our time: the news of this week, which has seemed laced with little but sorrow. I believe both of this week's passages offer us promise in these days: Peter bringing the power of Jesus' resurrection into a community shattered by death, and Jesus promising that no matter what, his beloved sheep will never be snatched from his hand.
But most of all, I believe this is a time to pray for peace and, as we pray, to live as wagers of God's peace. To that end, I wish to share the liturgy our Prayer and Meditation group worked through last night, one that was inspired by and adapted from some of the great peacemaking work done by the Mennonite Church. The below pattern for prayer is greatly indebted to them and, though designed for a group, can be done on your own as well. I encourage you to carve out some time to pray in these tumultuous days, that we may be made more and more into instruments of the peace of the risen Christ. I also commend to you this prayer published at Associated Baptist Press, which offers us both comfort and challenge.
Peace be with you, and hope to see you Sunday as we seek God's hope and God's light and celebrate a God whose love has overcome even death.
Prayers
for Peace--Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Adapted from various
resources at peace.mennolink.org
Voice 1: Jesus said,"The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent
me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to
let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4:18-19
Voice 2: "There is no peace because there are no
peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at
least as costly as the making of war – at least as exigent, at least as
disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its
wake." (Father Daniel
Berrigan)
Reading of Luke 19:37-38, 41-42
37 As Jesus
approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of
his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of
all the mighty things they had seen. 38 They said, “Blessings on the king who
comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in
heaven and glory in the highest heavens.”…41 As Jesus came to the city and
observed it, he wept over it. 42 He said, “If only you knew on this of all days
the things that lead to peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes.
Voice 3: With Jesus, we weep; with Jesus, let our
hearts be broken as we pray.
Contemplative
Silence
Voice 3: "I have the audacity to believe that
peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and
culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their
spirits…..
Voice 1: ……I believe that what self-centered men have
torn down, other-centered people can build up.
Voice 2: "…. I still believe that one day
humankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war
and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the
land…
Voice 3: "……we still have a choice today:
nonviolent co-existence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past
indecision to action.
Voice 1: "…..Now let us begin. Now let us
rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter – but beautiful – struggle for a
new world… The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must
choose in this crucial moment of human history… We shall hew out of the
mountain of despair, a stone of hope."--Martin Luther King, Jr.
Contemplative
Silence
Reading of Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength, a help always near in times of
great trouble.
That’s why we won’t be afraid when the world falls apart, when the
mountains crumble into the center of the sea, when its waters roar and rage, when
the mountains shake because of its surging waves.
There is a river whose streams gladden God’s city, the holiest
dwelling of the Most High. God is in that city. It will never crumble. God will
help it when morning dawns. Nations roar; kingdoms crumble. God utters his
voice; the earth melts. The Lord of heaven is with us! The God of Jacob is our
place of safety.
Come, see the Lord’s deeds, what works he has imposed on the
earth—bringing wars to an end in every corner of the world, breaking the bow
and shattering the spear, burning chariots with fire.
“That’s enough! Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted
among all nations; I am exalted throughout the world!”
Contemplative
Silence
Voice 3: Longing for peace, we are thankful for the
stirrings of peace and the promise of peace in our world.
Voice 1: Less than a month ago, we celebrated the
stirrings of life in the death and suffering of Jesus.
Voice 2: We continue to celebrate and hope for
resurrection.
Voice 3: All around us, the spring grass, flowers, and
buds remind us that life comes from death.
Voice 1: We celebrate and hope for the spring of hope.
Voice 2: We are promised in Isaiah: "My people
will abide in peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting
places." (Isaiah 32: 18)
Voice 3: We hope for the resurrection of our world.
Contemplative Silence
Reading
of Isaiah 2:1-5
This is what Isaiah,
Amoz’s son, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
In the days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of the mountains.
It will be lifted
above the hills; peoples will stream to it. Many nations will go and say, “Come,
let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of Jacob’s God so that God may
teach us God’s ways and we may walk in
God’s paths.” Instruction will come from Zion; the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.
God will judge
between the nations, and settle disputes of mighty nations.
Then they will beat
their swords into iron plows and their spears into pruning tools.
Nation will not take
up sword against nation; they will no longer learn how to make war.
Come, house of Jacob,
let’s walk by the Lord’s light.
Contemplative Silence
“We are Listening”: An adaptation of a prayer for peace written
by Mennonite pastor Samantha E. Lioi
Great and loving God,
you have set us to work
with you for good in the midst of great beauty and great evil.
In your world we are
dwarfed by giant trees whose thick limbs stretch out shelter and shade
and breathe out oxygen and
scents that please the creatures who walk beneath them.
We stare at the ocean,
stretching beyond our seeing, endlessly crashing in, pulling back.
And we are dwarfed by the
scale and depth of human grief and sin.
We are choked by the
number of people killed by our bombs, our guns, our hands.
We stare at our screens
without hope and without answers for our children..
We pray for them; we bring
suffering before you, a reflex like reaching for the lamp when the phone rings
in the middle of the night.
We have been taught, “When
you pray, move your feet.”
How shall we walk, O Lover
of all you have made?
How shall we love mercy,
we who are so small in the face of all that is?
How shall we do justice,
God of the friendless, the moneyless, the landless, the motherless?
You are the source of all
well-being and the hope of all the earth.
Creator of life, ancient
and surprising--we are listening.
Contemplative
Silence
Reading of Revelation 21:1-4, 22:1-5
Then I
saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth
had passed away, and the sea was no more.
I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
made ready as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud voice
from the throne say, “Look! God’s dwelling is here with humankind. He will
dwell with them, and they will be his peoples. God himself will be with them as
their God. He will wipe away every tear
from their eyes. Death will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying, or
pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Then the
angel showed me the river of life-giving water, shining like crystal, flowing
from the throne of God and the Lamb
through the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river
is the tree of life, which produces twelve crops of fruit, bearing its fruit
each month. The tree’s leaves are for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse. The throne
of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be
on their foreheads. Night will be no
more. They won’t need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord
God will be their light, forever and ever.
Time of
Spoken Prayers
Song of
Response: “O Come O Come Emmanuel,”
verse 5
O come, Desire of nations,
bind all peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife and
quarrels cease; fill all the world with heaven’s peace
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
The
Lord’s Prayer
