Thank you for your willingness to pray and hold others to our God. Pastor Kara reflected last week on the recent tragic act of terrorism that took place in London as well as the horrific discovery of the remains of 215 young people in Kamloops. She invited us to share in a prayer of lament which I have again included below. I invite you to use this pray as your lament, but also pray for God’s healing grace to be poured out in both of these communities and that God would bring healing.Prayer of Lament
God, we lament the damage that our silence in the face of racial violence has done,
for the sins of racism that run through our lives like so many threads in a cloth.
Forgive us for the times we have given in to our discomfort, for the times
we have forgotten our own privilege and failed to stand with our black siblings, our Indigenous, and our Muslim neighbours.
Help those of us who experience white privilege every day remember that, with our privilege,
we are imbued with the responsibility to challenge and hold one another accountable.
Give us the courage to educate ourselves, to listen well,
and to use our voices when it is most needed. Amen (adaptation of a prayer written by Clara Weybright)
And it was out of these tragedies that I was led to bring the message for this coming Sunday, “Hate vs Love….The Battle”
Therefore, I also invite you to spend some time praying the words of the apostle Paul from Ephesians 3: 14-21. Pray this for yourself and for others that you love in your sphere of influence. As you note, I have included both the NIV and The Message version. Invite God to speak deep into your heart as you pray.
(NIV)14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
(The Message) 14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!