Prayers of the People Following a Violent Death

Holy One, we dare once again to call you Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer;

though we are reeling from the violence in this world you created, 

though we are angered and hurt by acts that feel as though they are beyond redemption, 

though we grieve lives that were not sustained in their earthly form. 

We know you are a God who knows suffering and who suffered violence. 

This morning we are overwhelmed at the violence of this world. 

Another school shooting. 

The vitriol of national politics that threatens to bleed into upcoming holiday gatherings. 

Unrest around the world as protests persist in Bolivia and Hong Kong. 

And creation suffers and cries out in floods and fires.

All of these things weigh on us but heaviest of all is the violence done to someone we knew and loved.

We pray for all who knew and loved our brother, and for all those he loved. 

How do we pray, on days like this?

We long to know you are near. 

And we long to hold You, O God, accountable for your promises of peace and love.

We know we are called to participate in bringing your heavenly kingdom into this world, and we want to do that faithful work - 

and we are weary and shaken and sad. 

And yet.

Here we are.

Choosing this morning to gather in your sanctuary, we pray for your promised healing balm, and we also pray to be that balm for one another, for one another without limit.

May we see and hear our connectedness to all of your children, to all of your creation.

May we see and hear and love in a way that defies the values of this world and proclaims your glory. 

We pray for eyes to see and ears to hear the suffering beneath and before the violence erupts. 

And may we remember the mysterious truth that it is not the activity of peace-building that will bring healing, but the reality of your presence we find in the stillness of our souls. 

May we not ignore our own brewing anger - at this world, at one another, even at you - may we not ignore who we fully are because you know us fully and love of us infinitely. 

May we not hide but let our own souls find healing that comes only from you. 

May we trust enough the promise of your faithfulness, justice and righteousness to find that inner stillness; remembering how strange the arrival of your peace and hope tends to be, in unlikely places, through unlikely hosts. 

Come, Lord Jesus, and bring your kingdom with you. 

We choose to respond to chaos and grief by lifting our voices together to pray the prayer that ties us to every Christian in every time and every place, knowing that though our voices may be weak the refrain is infinite, asking you once again to make this place more like heaven, we pray in the name of the one who taught us, saying: Our Father, who art in heaven...

{Prayers of the People, 11.17.19}