A Prayer for the New Year - 2020

January 2020 – A Prayer for the New Year

Holy One,

Our calendars have turned to a new year. Our earthly way of telling time is not your way. But you know this.

There is much to thank you for, and there are concerns to voice.

(The latter first.)

Our human history shows us the world has always been in turmoil, different times and different places. But we are living in it now and see turmoil night and day before our eyes as we gaze at screens of every kind. Some of us witness turmoil firsthand, no screens needed.

Fires are raging, waters are rising, plants and animals are facing extinction, wars are commencing, human beings are violated and tortured.

Your creation groans.

Your creation weeps desperate tears.

Where are you, Holy One? Have you forsaken your creation? Or have we pushed you so far away you cannot dwell with us any longer?

Those are the wrong questions. We don’t have the power to move you or chase you away. We only have the power to step away from you and your goodness. We have the power to try to ignore you.

So, please forgive us when goodness and kindness aren’t our first reactions.

Forgive us when we carelessly and even purposefully destroy your creation with our pollution and filth.

Forgive us for changing the climate of this earth with our reckless behavior.

Forgive us for causing the extinction of plants and animals through our self-centeredness, thoughtlessness, and cruelty.

Forgive us for ignoring your commands to love one another, to love our neighbors, to respect and accept strangers, to feed the hungry, to give water to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit those who are sick and imprisoned.  

Forgive us for allowing cruel and selfish leaders to make destructive decisions that cause your creation to unravel itself.

Forgive all of us who think money is more important than the lives and well-being of others.

I lift my fist toward heaven in anger, yes furious anger, for how refugees are treated in my country, and in every country where people in desperate need ask for help because they have been displaced, threatened by violence, and are homeless.

I lift my fist toward heaven in anger because you can handle it.

You, Holy One, never intended your creatures to torture one another.

I will not ask you to bless the refugees. To bless them sounds passive. To bless them sounds trite. To bless them means nothing.

In this brand, new year, Holy One, I lift my fist toward heaven and shout: Release the captives! Reunite the families who have been wrenched apart. Wipe away the tears as only you can do. Heal the bodies, minds, and souls.

Give us the open hearts to carry out your healing and redemption to those who suffer.

You have cast a vision for us. One where weapons will be no more. Ploughshares and pruning hooks will be made from our guns. On your Holy Mountain there will be no weapons of any kind. There will be no killing. Beasts, wild and tame, will nibble on hay together. Children will be safe. No one who hurts another will be on your Holy Mountain.

(Now for the former)

Thank you.

Thank you, Holy One, for casting a vision of how we can bring more holiness to this unholy world.

Thank you for showing us how to live in peace with one another.

Thank you for reminding us to love, because you loved us first.

Thank you for giving us the means to feed all who hunger. Because we have more food than we know what to do with, we just aren’t wise in our decisions of how to share.

Thank you for those leaders of nations who have honor, integrity, and selflessness to serve their people, instead of using people to serve themselves.

Thank you for having a plan bigger than we can imagine. Thank you for calling us to be voices in the wilderness preparing the way and making the paths straight. Thank you for giving us good work to do so that we don’t get stuck thinking about ourselves for too long or too often.

Thank you for creating us in your image. Every single one of us.

Thank you for accepting our anger, our tears, our despair, our sin, or our refusal to believe in you anymore.

Thank you for never turning your back on our ugly behavior.

Please, Holy One, heal your world. Heal all of creation. Heal our broken natures. Heal our broken hearts. Bind us up and bind us together.

In this human year of 2020, may peace finally return. May love abound. May forgiveness reign. May evil be quelled. May we see you in those who are trodden down, and may we lift them up in the name of your Holiness.

Amen.