Eternal God,
In your mercy, hear our prayers of lamentation.
We know you as a God of love and justice,
but our hearts are perplexed, paralyzed and broken
at the recent violence in Gaza and Israel.
Because these, your children, both Jewish and Palestinian,
are surely kin to us, we feel intense pain in our spirits
as though our bodies were broken, captured, violated.
At our core, in the depths of our souls, we cry out:
“God, where have you been this week?”
“How can you, our loving God, let this happen?”
We seem to have forgotten any other way to pray
except for lamenting the pain of the world
that seems like it is in the room with us 24 hours a day.
We lament the loss of life of thousands of innocent people.
We are shocked at the stories we hear; we despise the pictures we see.
Yet we know you grieve the violence of war and condemn acts of terrorism.
We know you grieve the historical suffering of both Jews and Palestinians.
In our feeble faith, O God, we declare your desire for
life and peace for all your children.
We know your heart breaks for those left behind.
You know our human history of complicated conflicts,
tense polarization, and situations so politicized that we are afraid to say or pray anything.
May our prayers for peace be uttered in our hearts and lived out loud for all to hear,
our prayers for a new way, for peace, and for difficult,
yet faithful conversations to come.
We ask you to pave a path of peace through this age-old, tragic conflict.
We ask you to protect the innocent wherever bombs fall.
We ask you to tenderly care for the orphaned child, the fragile elderly,
the parents so desperate for safety that they left all they owned behind.
We raise our petitions for you to protect your children held in captivity,
holding on to be reunited with their families.
The internet allows us to be up close to the intense grief
and vulnerability from many perspectives;
fear is our constant companion that urges us not to look.
Yet the misery of our brothers and sisters begs us to look,
to lament this time when some of our brothers and sisters
believe war is the way forward instead of love.
Awake us, loving God, to our common humanity,
Guide us toward practical and imaginative minds that
allow the things we need in our common human life –
food, water, medicine, electricity – to reach those who do not
have access to these gifts, as well as the strength to
carry the stories of their treasured heritage.
God, we pray for your peace and reconciliation to overcome conflict.
We ask that you give wisdom and discernment to our
global leaders and those in positions of power
who have the ability to impact the course of this war.
Help us to be bold advocates and agents of peace in our own community.
We pray for people scattered around the globe whose
friends and family members have been caught in this crisis.
We lift our prayers to you. Lord, hear us.
Give us the understanding that there is pain on both sides
and expand our lens of care and concern to encompass the people we have not yet included.
For many have been tempted to believe
that the dividing line is between Jews and Palestinians.
Yet if anything separates us in this conflict, O God,
it is not borders, nor religion, nor language, nor land
but it is the temptation for some to believe that violence is the answer
and some who believe there is another way.
Sunday, October 25, 2023, Sharlande Sledge