Lord, we lament the state of our life together. We lament the rancor and the division. We lament our inability to listen to one another and our unwillingness to seek the common good above our own self interests. We lament that we seek to justify ourselves rather than build community. We lament that ethical behavior is exceptional rather than normative. We lament the carelessness with which we use your gift of language. We lament the disintegration of integrity and the disillusion that comes with such breaches of trust. We lament that while elected leaders wrangle, vulnerable people suffer.
We grieve the brokenness of our corporate body and confess that we contribute to its fracturing. We repent of our own pettiness and inability to empathize with one another. We, your people, those who right now prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ, know you call us to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, those who care for the least of these, those whose “yes” means yes and whose “no” means no, those who serve, those who are known by our love, those who worship you alone, those who love you with all we have and our neighbors as ourselves.
In this present moment of outrage and anger, fear and schism, chaos and consternation, grant us courage to be your witnesses, the leaven that expands mercy, peace, justice, truth and compassion. Make us stewards of the mysteries of grace that call us to a higher purpose and a certain truth. Help us to put our unity in Christ above our partisan politics for the sake of the world Jesus came to save.
Lord, we pray for our elected leaders, those in our local communities and those in the highest offices of our land. Grant them wisdom. Grant them discernment. Grant them the ability to be the people you call them to be. Help us hold one another accountable so that your will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
As we anticipate the Good News of Great Joy for all people that is soon to come with the Incarnation, made manifest in an infant born in a stable to a migrant family, may we never forget that we will be judged by how we treat our Lord when he is hungry, in need of clothing, imprisoned, without shelter and suffering. We will be asked if we saw him in the faces of the most vulnerable among us. As we sing “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World,” may our words not be clanging gongs and noisy symbols that lack love, but instead a bold affirmation of the reign of God not only in our hearts but made evident through our actions in this world.
Come, Lord, Jesus. We need your saving love, your amazing grace and your reconciling justice, and we need it now. Amen.
