A Prayer
By George “Chip” Hammond
Our Father in heaven,
The coronavirus we endured has highlighted a deeper illness, a disease of the heart, a disease of hatred and suspicion, a disease of tribalistic loyalties such that right and wrong are judged by no more than the tribe that someone belongs to.
Human hearts have not changed one bit from the time when the prophet Isaiah said truth is lacking and anyone who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey; and the Lord saw and it was displeasing in his sight that there was no justice. And on the heels of having averted what could have been a much greater catastrophe on a grand scale, when we as a nation ought to have been a humbled and thankful people, we witnessed on our television screens the horror of the callous injustice in Minnesota.
While outrage against injustice is good -- should be "for what kind of society would be if we turned a blind eye to brutality -- yet Father, there are those who would return evil for evil and use injustice as an excuse for perpetrating their own injustice. Deliver us from the kind of tribalism that would see all police officers in light of those who shamed their uniforms in Minnesota and from the kind of tribalism that would see all those who are morally outraged as those who would commit crimes in the wake of it.
I am convinced that there can be no real peace unless Christ is Lord and is Lord indeed. We confess to our shame Lord that some of our spiritual forebears had twisted the word of God and taken your holy name in vain to justify racial injustice because it was financially beneficial to them. Lord may we be ever watchful of our own propensities to twist your holy word and to take your holy name in vain to justify our eases and our pleasures.
We know that there is something deeply wrong with our world but we are not big enough to know what a world should look like, but we know what we should look like. For you have placed within our hearts a deep longing. You have revealed to us in your word what we ought to be and have shown us what a true man really is in becoming human in the incarnation of your son.
Renew us by your Holy Spirit. Incline us away from our desire to be conformed to any of the tribes of this world and incline us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so we may test and approve what is the perfect will of God. Lord as you have taught us, we pray for the coming of your Kingdom. We pray for the opportunities even in this difficult time to give others invitation to Christ and to the church which knows the love of God and the good news of the gospel of our reconciliation with you.
Amen
