A Prayer

It's been one of those seasons of life where one emerges later, a little dazed and confused, eventually settling in to normal, again. Or something like that. As the government shutdown continues, I've been thinking a lot about the pastoral prayer my congregation shared together on Christmas Eve. It seemed worth sharing even a few days after the Epiphany, because God knows these prayers have not been answered yet. 

One:    Holy God,

who chose to be among us rather than beyond us—

We pray differently this night, 

this night when we remember you came for each of us and all of us—

            We pray for those with a prophet’s voice, who remind us of your justice

Many: For William Barber and the Poor People’s Campaign

One:    For the voices of Black Lives Matter and Me Too 

Many: For Millard and Linda Fuller and Habitat for Humanity

One:    For those like Margaret Sanger, who fight for equal rights for women

Many: For churches everywhere who provide more than seven billion dollars in aid in the United States alone

One:    We pray for the people whose story is like the story of the Holy Family 

Many: For the people who fled the violence of their homelands and wait at the border

One:    For the parents and children who wait apart from each other

Many: For the many who live with violence

            in Sudan, in Yemen, in Detroit, in St. Louis, in so many places near and far.

One:    For those who wonder if they could care for a child, those for whom hope and fear are intermingled

Many: For those who cannot find someone willing to make room for them

One:    We pray for our neighbors like the shepherds

Many: for those who work difficult, smelly jobs for too little pay

One:    for those who sleep in the cold, on the dirt, in the street

Many: for those who labor so others may eat

One:    for those who live close enough to the edge that angels find them

Many: for the people whose words we are never privileged enough to hear

One:    We pray for those who rule, as the Magi did 

Many: for those who make laws and decisions about healthcare

One:    for those who regulate and legislate our food

Many: for those who decide wages

One:    for those who determine the futures of the our LGBT friends and family

Many: for those who have people entrusted to their care.

One:    We pray in the hope of the Christ child

Who transformed the world by coming in vulnerability rather than power

            There is a light that shines in the darkness

Many: and the darkness could not overcome it.

            Let us walk in the Light. Amen.