This week I came across a prayer written by General Presbyter Jan Edmiston, of the Presbytery of Charlotte, on the Day of Epiphany, the day of the storming of our national capitol:
“Loving God, who directed the Magi with a brilliant star, who created the stars shining brightly upon us tonight and the stars that hide behind clouds, we ask for your direction as the sun has set on this Epiphany. As we hear stories of disgrace and disorder, we dare to pray for peace – for our nation, for our nation’s capital, and within the deepest parts of our leadership. You are the God of radicals and traditionalists. You are the God of the fearless and the fearful. You are the God of all who are pessimistic on this night and those who are hopeful. You are the God of all of us who throw up our hands in fury of injustice. You are our God.
We confess that – although we live in a nation with noble aspirations – we have fallen short of your glory time and time again. Forgive us for treating brown and black and golden people differently from the way we treat white people. Forgive us for our blindness of everyday racism. Forgive us for choosing what is comfortable over what is true.
We place our nation in your hands on this night. Just as you guided the Magi, guide us to share gifts that honor the vulnerable. Make us bold to speak the truth in love. Keep us from weak indifference. Pour out your Spirit upon us to choose another way – a way that is not safe. perhaps, but a way that leads to wholeness and healing and repair. We pray this in the name of the One who was born in Bethlehem and who lives among us still through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
I also have one of my favorite quotes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in my heart today "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." May God help us to find that light and love needed for our day, and to share it with one another.
Elizabeth
In the life of our nation, we find ourselves in a strange and unsettling place these days. We’re shaken by the events of the past week with the violence at the Capitol. We’re shocked and saddened that circumstances have brought us to this point. We’re concerned about how, with all the differences among us, we can find the way forward together. We’re anxious about where our country goes from here, about what our future will be if we cannot find ways to end divisions so deep that some justify violence as the way to overcome them.
“We’re all in this together!” This thought has encouraged me in recent days. Another helpful thought concerns what has been called our “Declaration of Inter-dependence.” While we have our differences and our conflicts, we are not at war with each other; together we must focus on solutions to bring us together, not divisive acts to keep us apart. “We will influence change with these guiding principles: no enemies, no denial, no excuses, and no delay.”
Theologian Frederick Buechner puts it this way: “Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me … Unless we live for each other and in and through each other, we do not really live very satisfactorily.” Truly we’re all in this together!
This “Prayer of Thanksgiving for a New Year,” from the Iona Community is helpful:
Lord of Hope
we give You thanks for a new day.
We arise today to a horizon guiding our eye beyond the everyday;
to a dawn gently lighting up the wonders of Your creation;
to a whispered dew rooting us firmly to this precious earth.
For this and more we thank You.
Lord of Hope
we give You thanks for a new year.
We arise today to the knowledge that Your Son, our Lord, goes before us;
to the hope that through His presence all people will be transformed;
to the promise of salvation for all.
For this and more we thank You.
Lord of Hope
we give You thanks for a new start.
We arise today turning our backs on the ways of judgment and criticism;
sloughing off narrow-minded assumptions;
reaching out to enemy and friend with generous compassionate hearts.
For the promise of a new start, a new year, a new day,
for these gifts and for so much more we thank You. Amen.
Let us give thanks for the words of others that help us find our way, and pray for our nation, that in spite of all our differences, we may find the way forward together.
Elizabeth
In the last weeks of the year I look for special thoughts and writings I want to remember in the new year. This year four things speak to where I am in the moment.
The first is a Christmas card with a beautiful fox (with a green scarf), a lovely deer (with a red scarf) and a pretty cardinal (with a sprig of holly), standing together in a snowy forest with the words “Joy to Your World”- this is the card’s message. I think God wants me to hear those words in just that way, for many times in this year that is passing, foxes, deer and birds have been the main bringers of joy into my solitary world! “Joy to the World,” always, certainly! “Joy to Your World,” however that world may seem at the moment, is a special message for Christmas 2020.
The second is something I read online: “I had thought 2020 was the year I was going to get everything I wanted; instead, it was the year I learned to be truly grateful for everything I had.” I have experienced a deeper gratitude and appreciation for many things I took for granted before mid-March 2020. I will never again take for granted: eating lunch in a restaurant with a friend; going to the grocery store without following signs of direction and spacing; enjoying a movie or a play; walking mask-free down the street and shopping in a favorite store; hugging and shaking hands with my congregation; using our very own Communion Service when we break bread and share the cup, and singing freely songs of the faith; visiting dear friends in continuing care communities; traveling to visit family near and far. Truly, 2020 was the year I learned to be grateful in deeper ways than ever before, for everything I had.
The third is a very special Christmas card. The four corners of the card were marked with hearts, and boys and girls of many races, dressed in a rainbow of colors framed these words:
Help a Stranger
Praise a Child
Light a Candle
Share Your love
Sing for Joy
Lend a hand
Pray for Peace
Understand
These words are so perfect for gifts we can give one another during these uncertain days, and gifts we need to receive ourselves. I’ll soon have this card on in a frame on my office desk.
The fourth is something I copied in my journal in the summer of 1985, in a time of transition in my life. In re-reading old journals, I came across these words:
We need to feel more to understand others.
We need to love more to be loved back.
We need to cry more, to cleanse ourselves.
We need to see more than our own little world.
We need to hear more and listen to the needs of others.
We need to give more and take less.
We need to share more and own less.
We need to look more and realize that we are not so different
from one another.
We need to create a world where all can peacefully
live the life they choose.
These words speak to my heart in this season of life as well, for it, too is a time of transition - into a new season of life we’ll share together. May God bless our journey through this new year and cause us to be a blessing wherever we are.
Elizabeth