Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
Our nation is divided. We are hostile and we are fearful. We are confused and we are broken. We are hurting.
We lament the fact that the sin of racism is far more prevalent than we would like to believe. The lack of righteousness and justice in our world is appalling. We acknowledge “all lives matter” with our lips, yet our hearts remain far from those who differ from us in any number of ways. Father, you are a just God who shows no partiality; yet even we, your children, are often guilty of the evils of discrimination. We are prone to look only to our own interests and not those of others. We fail to put on the compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience of Christ our Savior.
We lament the fact that bitterness, slander, quarreling, and hatred are among the hallmarks of this age. It grieves us that these sins show up even among those who profess Jesus Christ as Lord! While we understand the anger and frustration over such horrifying acts of injustice, we lament the fact that these tragedies often only lead to more chaos and wrongdoing. How quick we are to take matters into our own vindictive hands. Heavenly Father, we confess that our anger has given great opportunity to the devil. We are slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger—an anger that has not produced the righteousness of God.
Lord, you tell us in your Word that because man does not see fit to acknowledge God, you have given us up to worthless desires. As a result, we are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, and deceit. We are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. By nature, our feet are swift to shed blood; in our paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace we have not known. Why? Because there is no fear of God before our eyes.
O God, have mercy on us; forgive us for our sins. Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Grant the gift of repentance and faith to even the vilest offenders. Forgive us for our failure to treat others as fellow image-bearers, and for our lack of concern to seek justice and uphold righteousness. Bring healing and rest to the black community. Revive us, we pray.
Apart from you, O Lord, we will never know peace. Apart from your grace, sin only reigns in chaos and death. And so, unless the power of sin that enslaves hearts is broken and the reign of death is ended, we will never know the blessing of true and lasting reconciliation. The only way there will ever be peace between neighbors and enemies, communities and nations, is if there is first peace with you. But this is exactly what you came to do for us when, in love, you gave us your only Son!
We thank you, Jesus, that you humbled yourself, took on flesh, and entered our divided, hostile, fearful, confused, broken, and hurting world. You showed compassion on all those who were sinful, hurting, and oppressed. We praise you that you laid down your sinless life to bear the penalty for our sin, and rose victorious from the dead for our justification. Now, through faith in your mighty name, we can be forgiven and reconciled to God in one body through your cross. Truly, you are the Prince of Peace. And it is only as proud, selfish sinners, such as ourselves, are reconciled to God through faith in Christ that the nations will be glad.
Spirit of the Living God, help us to remember your marvelous mercies that we might show our world a better Way. Help us to listen to, to learn from, and to love our neighbors in the humility of Christ—regardless of ethnicity, socio-economic class, or political party. Help us to search our hearts and put to death the sin of partiality and racism that rears its ugly head in both obvious and subtle ways. Help us to keep your commandments by seeking to protect and preserve the lives of others. Help us to not only proclaim the glories of the gospel we believe, but to adorn this gospel by living lives worthy of Christ our King.
Give strength and comfort to our black brothers and sisters, especially those who belong to our local church family. Fill us with the loving compassion of Jesus so that we might learn to mourn with those who mourn. Give us the wisdom to know how we can seek the peace and welfare of the city in which you have planted us as exiles. Grant us both the desire and ability to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you.
May your kingdom come, and your will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Matt Bedzyk is the lead pastor of Emmanuel Community Church where he has faithfully served in many capacities for most of his life. He received his Master of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and currently oversees preaching and liturgy. Matt and his wife Brianna have four children: Lorien, Owen, Vivian, and Simon. In his spare time, you can find him brewing coffee, enjoying music, quoting Frasier with his wife, and dancing with his kids.
