A Prayer for Justice

I was invited to pray a prayer for justice at the York National Day of Prayer event. My prayer is below, and it really is my prayer for our nation and world:

God of Justice, we are acutely aware of all the ways injustice reigns in our lives and in our world. We feel it in our bones, in our guts, in our hearts, and we cry out for deliverance from all the pain and agony. We pray with the Psalmist “how long O Lord.” How long O Lord will we have to cry out in anguish and pain at the utter brokenness of our world.

We cry out for those crushed under the unforgiving and usurious debts of predatory payday and title loans.

We cry out in anguish for those who are feared, looked down upon, and shot at simply because of the color of their skin.

We cry out for the homeless who are maligned and driven away from our streets because they are an unsightly blemish on our society.

We cry out for our children for whom even their schools are not safe from the plague of gun violence in our nation.

We cry out for immigrant mothers and fathers trying to provide for their children in a country that has become increasingly hostile and unwelcoming.

We cry out for those with special needs who are treated as less than human instead of as beautiful creations of your hand.

We cry out for those who are looked down upon and marginalized because the faith they hold, the color of their skin, who they love, or the language they speak.

We cry out for the poor who are blamed for their poverty and coldly told to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when for so long they have been denied access to the shoe store.

We cry out for the asylum seekers in Tijuana, looking for safety and refuge and being met with cold indifference and fire-hot hostility caused by pundits who misinform and feed the fears of their viewers.

We cry out in anguish, how long O Lord must we live with such injustice? How long, O Lord, will the powerful continue in their abuse of the marginalized and oppressed?

In repentance we pray for forgiveness for all the ways we have added to the injustices of our world. We recognize our missed opportunities, our busy indifference, and our active participation.

Forgive us, O God for not living up to the standard of justice, of righteousness you set for us.

Forgive us for looking away instead of engaging.

Forgive us for hiding from responsibility instead of taking up your mantel of justice.

Forgive us for the times that we ourselves have stoked fears instead of faith, have blamed victims instead of helping them, have ignored cries of distress because we deemed those crying out to be unworthy of our aid.

We find solace, God, in the words of Jesus’ inaugural address,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Empower us now, through your Spirit, to live fully into this Gospel that you proclaimed, a gospel of peace and reconciliation, a gospel of dignity for the oppressed, care for the sick, empowerment for the poor, acceptance for the marginalized, and welcome for the immigrant. May we struggle against all powers of darkness and evil that keep our societies, our institutions, and at times even our churches and ourselves marred in sin, both systemic and personal, that harms the other and enables injustice to reign. May we work for the redemption of all humans, the reconciliation of all enemies, into the beautiful and just Kingdom you came to establish.

In the name of One who was lynched, that is crucified, on a tree outside Jerusalem, we pray.

Amen.