One:  With churches burning and hate mail flying,
All:     we shy away thinking that has nothing to do with me.

One:  With bombs dropping on faraway cities,
All:     we turn off the news and put up our feet up in comfort.

One:  With ebola still claiming lives in Africa,
All:     we pretend not to know and as we swallow our vitamins.

One:  With drought leaving many poor and hungry,
All:     we ignore the risk, let the water run, and go to the grocery store.

One:  With our prisons housing more people with mental illness,
All:     we tell ourselves it’s okay and cloak ourselves with false righteousness.

One:  With floods, tornados, super storms, and melting arctic ice,
All:     we refuse to change our ways thinking global warming is a future problem.

One:  With boat loads of starving refugees off another country’s coast,
All:     we assure ourselves it’s someone else’s problem and eat another snack.

One:  With neighbors living in fear of hatred because they don’t fit the “norm,”
All:     we say that we don’t feel that way and close and lock our doors.

One:  With Jesus calling us to love one another as he loves us,
All:     we clearly still wonder who that carpenter, that son of Mary and Joseph, really is.

One:  Holy One, you lived among us. You showed us a way of love and justice, hospitality and mercy.
All:  Forgive us for failing to recognize you. Forgive us for all the ways in which we have not lived in love, worked for justice, offered hospitality, or embodied mercy.

One:  Have mercy on us.
All:     Fill us with the courage to change. May we be your voice that calls for an end to apathy, ignorance, and ambivalence. May we be your hands that bring hope and healing to the victims of racism, war, and hatred and to the planet that we have too long abused and neglected. May our feet walk in your way of peace.

One:  Grant us your grace.
All: May we live fully into the forgiveness you offer that one day there may be healing and equality among all your peoples.

Amen.

RCL – Year B – Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – July 5, 2015
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 with Psalm 48 or
Ezekiel 2:1-5 with Psalm 123
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13

All photos from Pixabay.com. Used with permission.