8.13 [REFLECTION] - Prayer for Charlottesville

1 John 2: 9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. In the name of Jesus, we stand against hate. We stand against white supremacy and racism. We stand against torches and fear and domestic terrorism. We stand against the silence and complacency that let this cancer thrive. In the name of Jesus, we stand against hate. 1 John 3:15-16 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. In the name of Jesus, we stand with our brothers and sisters. Those of us who are white and have experienced a very different version of America, we stand with you, our brothers and sisters of color, who are targets of this hatred. We stand with those wounded and afraid and angry. We stand with those who aren’t shocked in the least by the images coming from Charlottesville, but are weary and horrified. We stand knowing we haven’t done enough to dismantle the systems of oppression hardwired into our society since before its founding. How do we know we haven’t done enough? Because it’s 2017 and torch-wielding lynch mobs still roam our streets. We stand begging for forgiveness from you and from God. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. 1 John 4:20-21 We love because God first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And God has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. In the name of Jesus, we stand for love. We stand for grace and peace - shalom - not the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice and restoration. We stand for the thriving and healing of all of God’s children. We stand and pray and march and petition and raise our voices because to be silent is to side with the oppressors. In the face of unimaginable hate, we stand unafraid and unwavering, strengthened by the resurrected Christ. In the name of Jesus, we stand for love.