Friends, for our devotion this morning I want to share this prayer from
enfleshed. It is a prayer of confession, a prayer for racial justice, a prayer
for God's heart and will to be done on earth. I am particularly drawn to this
prayer today due to the news of Ahmaud Arbery's murder that has been
brought to our attention in recent days. Today is Ahmaud's 26th birthday
and he should be celebrating it with his family.
People all over the country are going on memorial walks and runs for
Ahmaud Arbery today of 2.23 miles, in remembrance of the date of his
death. Ahmaud never got to finish his run that day.
May we all confess and stand up against the forces of white supremacy.
Let us pray...
God, who searches our hearts and calls us to courage,
as racist violence against your people and the earth persists,
Your spirit groans with us over all that is being lost.
We come together to lament lives burdened and destroyed,
communities criminalized and under-resourced,
families torn apart, and lands stolen and plundered.
Our lives are entangled in a complicated web of systems, histories, and
beliefs.
They make it difficult to live as Jesus taught us,
to lay down our lives for our friends,
and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
And so we confess:
Too often, our fear prohibits us from being bold in love.
We do not do enough to hold ourselves, our communities, and those
in power
accountable to racial justice.
Rather than cast our lot with the most marginalized,
where race and other injustices wed,
our loyalty is often granted to those most like us.
Though prophets surround us, calling us to live and perceive differently,
we confess, we ignore their pleas.
Hear our hearts, Delivering One:
we do not always recognize the ways we are complicit with white
supremacy,
but we know that we are - individually and collectively,
that we strive not to be,
and that we believe, by your power, O God,
we can keep learning,
keep growing,
and disrupt the cycles of racism that run through our lives, our
church, and our world.
Forgive us our complacency and lead us on paths of justice.
Not even the forces of white supremacy can overcome the power of
your love.
So rise within us and around us, O God,
that your Kindom may come on earth as it is in heaven.
Not one day, but today.
Through Christ,
who liberates the oppressed and
frees the captive heart, we pray,
Amen.