Oh Lord God, there is none like you in heaven, on earth, or beneath the earth who is a covenant-keeping God showing kindness to your servants who walk before you with all their heart (1 K 8:23).
We come here this morning to lay before you our distress and to seek your favor as your children.
The coronavirus has exposed our weaknesses – it has revealed a deeper and more deadly disease of the soul. It has revealed our selfish tendencies toward thoughtless disregard for community and the folly of individuality.
In our aloneness we are learning the importance of a living and caring community of faith. In our aloneness we are learning that no woman or man is self-sufficient, that no woman or man is a god unto themselves. And yet we are like and continue to be like the ancient Israelites in the time of the judges, of whom it was said, “in those days … everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
The coronavirus has exposed our weaknesses – it has revealed a deeper and more deadly disease of the soul. It has revealed our arrogant reliance on wealth and personal gain. We are like and continue to be like the Laodiceans who said, “we are rich and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” (Rev.3:17). The virus is stripping us of our wealth and exposing the fact that we like they are “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”
The coronavirus has exposed our weaknesses – it has revealed a deeper and more deadly disease of the soul. It has exposed our foolish reliance on women and men in positions of power. Leaders who have proven themselves inept, unkind, and self-serving. Leaders who taking pride in power, have assumed themselves immune from their own actions. Like David numbering the fighting men of Israel, they have brought disaster on the innocent (2 Sam 24). Yet foolishly, we have leaned and continue to lean on the broken reed of human power though our hand is pierced through (2 Kings 18:21).
In this moment in history, whether this virus is the sad consequence of Adam’s sin or your messenger matters little. We have learned and are learning still that prestige and wealth and power are not our saviors and that we would do well to repent of our foolish reliance on them.
We pray that we do not harden our hearts to your call for repentance. We pray that we would heed your call to reach out to our sisters and brothers in Christ. We pray that you will raise up shepherds in our midst who not only know the sheep but tend to their injuries and ensure their well-being.
We pray that we do not harden our hearts to your call for repentance. We pray we would not count it a sacrifice to give what little we have that those who follow your voice into the wilderness might not faint. That we would not hold so tightly to the little we have that those whose need is greater lose strength on the way.
We pray that we not harden our hearts to your call for repentance. We pray we would not seek the preservation of power or position or wealth or honor above your call to leave what we have and follow you – even if you lead us into the wilderness, into the stormy sea, into the prison, into poverty, or even into death.
Today we pray – as we should – for the lost and wandering, the poor, the widow, the orphan, the discouraged, the disheartened, all the ones who live in the shadows of society whether in our fair city, this nation, or around the world. But today we are also praying for ourselves.
Save us from sheltering ourselves in pious words and lofty ideas -- from wrapping ourselves in the comfort of a false spirituality, from clever theology, and from self-pious progressivism that are unwilling to bear the consequences of their own proclamations.
Save us from feeling good about ourselves because we have said the right words or read the right book or have the right lawn sign or shouted the right slogan.
Save us from our unwillingness to act, to lift up our voice, to give up our comforts for the very objects of our prayers – for the spiritually destitute, for the poor, for the oppressed, for those who live in the shadows.
Be patient with us, we pray – as your Church and each one of us as members of that Church – as we strive to to learn these lessons. Encourage us as we commit all that we have and all that we are and all that we hope to be – our prestige, our wealth, our power – to follow you Jesus wherever you lead.
We confess these lessons are hard to learn, that a pandemic is a hard teacher, and that we fear the teaching and the learning are not yet over. Be our strength. We do not want to fail you in this time of testing and learning and opportunity, for we believe this too is what Paul meant when he assured us that in all things you work for the good of those who love you, who have been called according to your purpose. (Rom 8:28).
We turn to you Lord Jesus, our Hope and the Hope of the world, because we know that though we fail you in many ways that you fail us in none. To you be the glory and honor and riches forever,
Amen.
— A Prayer Written by Richard White