Prayer: Ferguson, ALS and Newness

By revjudegeiger

This prayer was given on Sunday, August 24th, 2014 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Huntington, NY.

Spirit of Hope, God of Many Names and One Transforming and Abundant Love,

Teach us that we are ever moving.

With each day passing, and every fresh start,

we are reminded that life doesn’t stay still in yesterday,

nor run to tomorrow,

but is with us, here;

in our pain, and in our joy.

Every success will lead to new challenges,

and every sorrow will someday pass.

In our times of sadness,

may this lesson give us hope when it’s hard to see past the gloom.

Even when we may fear change, or lament the end of something good,

so too does the law of change demand that hardship will some day end.

May we not lose sight of this, when the world seems closing in.

We pause to share our gratitude this week for the remarkable deepening of awareness and support of health concerns connected with ALS.

May this be a lasting change in consciousness,

and may it lead to a cure,

for all who suffer under pains of the nerves and muscles,

in any form. May they soon find relief.

So too our nation is awakened once more to the painful and paralyzing force that is racism.

Its burden weighs down a people, and makes it hard to move.

We pray for the people of Ferguson, MO this morning.

The citizens, the police, the protestors, the journalists.

We hold in our hearts especially Michael Brown who was fatally shot.

May those with power over life and death,

learn not to wield it so freely,

to hold life sacred.

May difference not be seen as scary.

And may we learn new ways to lift each of us up,

so that our system of poverty does not create places of such pain, division, and strife.

As our nation reflects on the violence in Ferguson,

help us not to split this into us vs them,

or the people versus all police.

We know that each person’s actions are their own responsibility,

and yet we have a culture that seems to repeat the same story of loss over and over.

Help us to tell a new story,

day by day.

We also offer a blessing to Starr, our new religious educator. May she grow in her ministry with us, and may our community learn from her wisdom. In the building of the Beloved Community, it takes many leaders and many learners. May her time with us be a gift to her to and to this community.