Prayers of the People #

Look, God’s people, a babe lies in a manger and look, God’s people, in a moment He is a child in the synagogue — where has he gone? — and look, God’s people, in a moment He is a man and beneath the waters of the Jordan, the dove of the Spirit descending, a voice declaring and look, God’s people, He takes pity and stones do not fly and children merely sleep and the blind blink open their eyes and look, God’s people, He is raised aloft, bloodied and tortured, on that dreaming rood and look, God’s people, the stone that covered Him has rolled away — where has he gone? — and look, God’s people, there He is on the beach preparing breakfast for the wayward disciples and look, God’s people, at the sin that clothes you, see how His blood spatters there, the sin turned to ash, fallen off, scattered in the wind of God’s passing where there is rain and rumor of green new things. Look, God willing, may we see.

God in Your Mercy,
Receive our Prayer.

Feel, God’s people, the wound in my side, He says, Tree Hung Man, Mary’s son, He wounded unto death but not bound up by it. Feel, God’s people, the wounds in your own bodies. Does not God feel them with you? Feel, God’s people, the torments in your minds. Does not God feel them with you too? Feel, beloved siblings, the wounds in each other’s sides, the wounds of kith and kin, of pauper and pariah, neighbor and nobody. Feel God’s pity, oh people, bind what can be bound and raise up to God now aloud or in your heart that which God alone can heal.

God in Your Mercy,
Receive our Prayer.

Taste, God’s people, the food that God has given us. Taste not, God’s people, the bile of empty stomach. Taste not, God’s people, the acid of a belly distended with gluttony. Give out what you have, the Son of Man says, share it, multiply what you have, take and eat and give what is needed for today. God’s earth is verdant. There is enough for all to taste the fruit of this good world. Bless, oh Warder of Bread, all our neighbors that come to eat under these roof beams, sheltering in Your house. Teach our hands to make, teach our tongues to yearn for Your communion meal, sharing Your abundance with all who will come.

God in Your Mercy,
Receive our Prayer.

Hear, God’s people, of the bread makers, huddled in basements, tyrant’s shells landing around, of the hands that feed the war weary. Hear, God’s people, of the shovelers of rain and of snow, who break the tyrant’s thirst. Hear, God’s people, of the babushkas, brooms in hand, who sweep aside glass and metal and flesh, bloom of the tyrant’s bombs, that the precious children might walk God’s earth unharmed. Hear, God’s people, of the fighters of fire, saving what might be saved, who might be saved, even while the tyrant’s gunshots ring, the tyrant’s artillery booms and the tyrant’s missiles roar overhead. Hear, God’s people, how Rashka cries out in Revda, how Rashke weeps in Rudky, for their children are no more. Hear, God’s people, how the tyrant’s back creaks under the weight of his wickedness. Break it, oh God, God of Gideon, Yael and of David, break the tyrant’s back, let its crack resound in those shattered places. Sunflowers hide there in the ground, waiting to burst forth at the first sign of spring, yellow beneath blue sky. Let, oh God, glad song of a freed peoples bloom with them, may we hear and rejoice too.

God in Your Mercy,
Receive our Prayer.

God teaches, do not fight iron chariots on the plain but wait in the hills for rains to come and bog down their heavy wheels. We cannot out terrorize fascism, we cannot out-greed capitalism, we cannot out-burn the conflagrations of hate and bloodlust and sadism. To take up the sword, to live by it, is to die by it, our blood running hot into Sheol’s waiting maw. No. Kindle in our hearts love, oh God, teach us to yearn for no more than we need, let Your words be a trouble to our minds, goading them on the path to You, curved and steep when seen from afar, straight and level when walked. Load us up with Your light burden.

In the holy name of Jesus the Christ, who lived and died and lived again for our sake, we pray,

Amen