Prayer for Reconciliation

Yesterday I went to church to work - so happy to be out of the house. And I was glad that I was not able to do what I would have done - watch the news all day - as the horror of the riots in Washington DC played themselves out.  

It is a fitting end to these years of terrible divisiveness under President Trump.  I pray that President Biden will find a way to help people to work together.  I had watched Trump's rally in Atlanta and heard his invitation to his people to come to Washington and was really not all surprised at what happened.  Especially after Rudy, his son and then Trump himself encouraged their actions. I am only surprised that the police were not prepared for the onslaught.

So, we are all spectators in this terrible drama and all we can do is seek to understand and to keep praying for peace and reconciliation.  

Here is a prayer by Walter Brueggemann

You creator God
who has ordered us
in families and communities,
in clans and tribes,
in states and nations.

You creator God
who enacts your governance
in ways overt and
in ways hidden.
You exercise your will for
peace and for justice and for freedom.

We give you thanks for the peaceable order of
our nation and for the chance of choosing—
all the manipulative money notwithstanding.

We pray now for new governance
that your will and purpose may prevail,
that our leaders may have a sense
of justice and goodness,
that we as citizens may care about the
public face of your purpose.

We pray in the name of Jesus who was executed
by the authorities.

— Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People