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| Image by Luca Sartoni |
We pray for an end to extremism and hatred and for
greater respect and understanding for different religions and cultures.
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A Greeting
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help. From God's temple my voice
was heard, and my cry reached God's ears.
(Psalm 18:6)
A Reading
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
(Psalm 42:3-6a)
Music
Meditative Verse
I am going to bring recovery and healing;
I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.
(Jeremiah 33:6)
A Prayer
Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
Sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
- Maori Lord's Prayer, found in A New Zealand Prayer Book
Verse for the Day
For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
(Psalm 108:4)
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| Image by Luca Sartoni |
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For the second time this Lent, we are making space to bow our heads in prayer for those who grieve and mourn a sudden and cruel loss of human life. The intentional murder of forty-nine people at prayer in two New Zealand mosques has shocked and overwhelmed us. This massacre is an expression of extremism, the holding of extreme political or religious views. Extremism is nothing new: it has been a part of human experience since we were created and has come in diverse forms. In the eleventh century, Christians slaughtered Muslims and Jews in the crusades in Jerusalem, killing almost everyone who lived there. The rise of Nazism and the murder of six million Jewish people is another example. These manifestations are hateful but an "extreme" passionate commitment and belief can be expressed in other ways. As we considered earlier this week, individuals and organizations with a passionate commitment to justice are willing to take themselves into places of danger for the sake of improving the lives of others. Their focus is a desire to serve life, not to take life away. To serve God is a surrender to God’s love living in another person. It is acting on a desire to give of oneself for someone else’s well-being. When we serve God we enter into the heart of someone's suffering and dwell alongside it. Today’s music was written for the choir we hear performing it after the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, and in memory of a choir member who was killed there. Wherever there is senseless murder and killing, our response can be “let my love be heard”. How will you let your love be heard in the wake of Christchurch? Is there a Muslim congregation or association that could use your support today? Even a neighbour or friend may be in need of a hug. When we hug someone, we dismantle hate. We grow love. And we live in hope.
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ELCIC National Bishop Susan Johnson offered this prayer
yesterday with the invitation to use it in Sunday services as well.
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LC† Journey for Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
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