Interfaith Day of Prayer – Prayer from Emma Jordan-Simpson

O God, we sit now in a strange place. With fear, we watch the mountains shake. We witness the roaring of the seas. Yet, you are still God. You are a wonder and the fresh brook of promised peace. Even when this world seems to be falling apart, we remember the songs of our ancestors – this world is your creation and it sits, like us, in the palm of your hand.

As we lay our grief and sorrow at your feet, broken by a virus and hoping for the consolation of your comfort, we are also convicted by the folly of our investments in the tools of war and violence. While our stockpiles overflow with the instruments of global death and destruction, our people die for want of hospitals bed, ventilators, and protective equipment for medical professionals. God, forgive us for our unloving ways, our unloving policies, and our hatefully unimaginative budgets.

You are the God whose love has reached through generations to make yourself known to us. Your grace knows no border. Inspire our hearts to draw wider circles, to stretch in the ways your love demands.

You are the God who makes all things new; even us. Re-make us with courage to release the small and familiar. Re-new us with the wisdom to reject sour-tasting nationalism. By your grace, revive us with a vision for the healing of this world big enough that it requires all of us across the world to hold.

With every step we take toward you, you have – in mercy – taken ten toward us. Keep chasing us with your mercy. Keep chasing us with your love. Keep chasing us with your peace. Amen  

The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson

Executive Pastor, The Concord Baptist Church of Christ, Brooklyn, NY, writer, social justice activist, and Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation USA.