June 8, 2020
A daily prayer during this COVID-19 crisis
During these difficult days, Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar and the members of the Extended Cabinet are sharing a daily prayer based on the Revised Common Lectionary for the week.
You are welcome to use these in worship or in your own devotions.
Today’s prayer
God of Love and Grace,
From my soul and my heart, I cry out for you
through tears of sorrow and anguish, anger and frustration!
How can I witness to your amazing care for your people
when all around this world a pandemic is causing so much death?
How can I confidently speak the truth about quelling the pandemic
when our nation’s leadership contradicts medical truths?
How can I forgive perpetrators of violence and suffering against Black people
while their tormentors hide behind a uniform and a badge?
How can I reassure children that they are loved for who they are
and not judged by the color of their skin?
Your Holy Word compels your people to witness lovingly and to speak truths.
Your Holy Word calls your people to lift spirits with love and to offer forgiveness.
Your Holy Word assures us that your people will be moved by righteousness.
And so we wait!
But how long, Lord, how long?
How long before a real change comes?
In times such as these, we hear your voice in the scriptures:
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
We are suffering now, O God of Love and Grace! We implore you to be with us in these days of trial! Have we not endured the deaths due to COVID-19 for too long? Have we not lived with the sins of racism and white privilege for too long? Move us to be people of character, pleasing to you! Move us to be hopeful people living in the confidence of your love for us.
Come, Holy Spirit, come! In the precious love of Christ, Amen.
By Rene Wilbur, New England Conference Lay Leader Based on Psalm 116:1-2 and Romans 5:1-5 [NRSV]