A poem-prayer for healing what Jim Wallis calls America’s “original sin”:
Grief-stricken.
Pain-soaked.
Fearful and afraid.
How else can we describe the horror of images such as we’ve seen in the last week?
Lives taken. Precious lives lost.
God, may I feel this grief.
May this pain break my heart,
and make it wide open to the suffering of others,
so that I not only pray for peace,
but work for it.
So many of us want to ‘do’ something.
But we don’t know what.
Overwhelmed, we remain paralyzed;
disciples locked away in the Upper Room.
And yet Lord, you were just crucified,
and you have been crucified over and over
in the lives of black men in this country.
Lord, you have been crucified in the slain police officers,
shot down in the line of duty,
sworn to protect and serve.
God, I don’t know what direction to turn,
so I turn to You.
We have a hole in this country;
an “original sin” of racism begging to be healed.
We cannot heal it alone.
Only together.
And so today, whatever we do,
I pray that we come together.
I pray that we begin sacred conversations on race.
I pray that we who have privilege begin with awareness,
and move to humility and ally-ship,
asking how we can be the hands and feet of God,
asking how we can heal this wound.
God, may we listen to your spirit of love and justice.
May we give birth to transformation and liberation.
Spirit, you are in all children, all peoples.
May this be our creed.
May love be our religion.
We are waiting for someone
and that someone is us.