World Day of Prayer: For Times Such as These
As we think about our prayer for the world this day I invite you to hear these words from the book of Hebrews, written to the early Christian community, which also seem to speak to us today. The author has listed the many faithful who paved the way for us, he talks about Abraham and Moses and David and the great cloud of witnesses who persevered so that the world might know the love of God - - - and then he says “Do you see what this means? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running – and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. . . lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight the paths of your feet. . . Pursue peace with everyone and holiness without which no one will see God. . Make sure no one gets left out of God’s generosity.”
In times such as these, when our world is so very divided by not only cultural differences but differences of faith as well, I believe the scripture says some really important things for us. . .first and foremost, it says we, who are followers of Jesus, must stand for the love of God and neighbor. “Study how Jesus did it” the scripture says . . . Jesus was very clear in his teachings that neighbors included people who don’t look like us. . . who perhaps don’t understand God in the same way we do . . .who might not even know there is a God to know . . . and yet, we are called to speak love to them because we too have received love, even before we knew God. The scripture reminds us that that might be hard work . . . another translation says we must “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” . . . in our world we have come to be afraid of persons who are not like us . . . especially of persons who understand God differently, and yet Jesus is our model . . . he showed us how to do that as he welcomed sinners and ate with those the religious people condemned and honored the loving-kindness even of the Samaritan, who was a foreigner in their midst. That transformation of our lives starts with prayer that we might be transformed into the image of Jesus so that we might love the world like Jesus did.
In times such as these, perhaps we can learn that diversity is of God . . . it can be our strength if we can recognize that all the diversity in the world comes to us as a gift from God. When you were a child, perhaps you might have learned as I did the song “Jesus Loves the Little Children . . . all the children of the world . . . red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight . . . Jesus loves the little children of the world.” That was easy for me as a little girl because I didn’t know anyone who was red or yellow or black or white or different from me! But today that takes on a whole new meaning, as we realize we are connected to the whole world and called to love the whole world! If Jesus loved all of God’s children and he is our model, then how else can we be faithful in our discipleship and in our prayer than to “pursue peace with everyone and holiness for our own life”, because it is in our modeling the love of Jesus that others will want to know him as well. We are like the hypocrites Jesus condemned when we pray for peace in the world and refuse to recognize the sacred gift of life in our brothers and sisters of the world.
As we pray that the world might be transformed into the “Kingdom of God” for which Jesus prayed, we have to pray that love triumphs over hate, hope triumphs over fear, unity triumphs over alienation, perseverance triumphs over our inclination to give up on the world . . . and we, the followers of Jesus, must pray to be those who “lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees and make straight the paths of our feet so that the world will know the generous grace of God.”
Rev. Dawne McAlpin
