category: Prayer

Healing Thoughts

By Rachael Keefe

RCL – July 1, 2012 – Fifth Sunday after Pentecost 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 with Psalm 130  or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24 or Lamentations 3:23-33 with Psalm 30 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Mark 5:21-43 When I sit down to write this blog, I usually review the news for the week …

Healing Thoughts

RCL – July 1, 2012 – Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 with Psalm 130  or
Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24 or Lamentations 3:23-33 with Psalm 30
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43

When I sit down to write this blog, I usually review the news for the week because I can’t quite recall the specifics of any particular news story. However, today my memory isn’t quite so murky. A few things in this weeks’ news penetrated a little more deeply and I can’t quite let them go. So I am going to to do something a little different with them – somewhere between a psalm and a lament.

Jesus Christ, son of humanity, God incarnate,

when you walk in this world, why do crowds no longer gather?

Woman and children in Yemen starve while their men go out to sea

in villages with no names, in places with no hope

Afghanistan begins to rebuild after war with so little to hold onto

as independence costs more than lives given can possibly pay

too many ask “what has that to do with me?” when war declared

after months of increasing violence in Syria

where innocents die on both sides of a fence built on (or between)

religion and politics for reasons unfathomable

Asylum-seekers sink off the coast of Australia because old policy

doesn’t cover new situations and fear creates enemies out of desperate

despairing people who might not look like sister or brother

Jesus Christ, restorer of life, savior of the outcast,

why do we not see the power go out from you?

forgive us for our blinding sins and grant us the courage of faith

without hatred, judgment, and violence

that we might dare to touch your garments

and be healed from apathy and despair that bleeds out

all over the world

open our eyes to see you in the places you have always walked –

with the hungry in Yemen, Ruanda, China, everywhere

with those emerging from destruction in Afghanistan, Africa, Pakistan, anywhere

with the victims of politics and religion in Syria, Egypt, America, elsewhere

with any and all who seek asylum from Australia to Arizona and all places in between

Jesus Christ, son of humanity,

awaken us from our sleep

that we may walk with you

now

Amen.

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About Rachael Keefe

Rachael is an author, a pastor, a teacher, and a poet. Her latest book (The Lifesaving Church - Chalice Press) is on faith and suicide prevention. She is currently the pastor of Living Table UCC in Minneapolis, and has launched a spiritual direction practice.

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