by The Rev. Jeremy Campbell, Stated Clerk

As I thought about what to offer in this space for the Presbytery in Prayer this week and as I surveyed my facebook feed I became very concerned by the way the run up to the coming elections is causing division and othering amongst people, whom I know to be people of good will, causing them to engage in dehumanizing, shaming, and othering those who don’t agree with them. I was reminded of a prayer for election season from our 1946 Book of Common Worship which read:

 “Under your law live, great God,
and by your will we govern ourselves.
Help us as good citizens
to respect neighbors whose views differ from ours, so that without partisan anger, we may work out issues that divide us, and elect candidates to serve the common welfare; through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.”

It is absolutely foundational that we continue to respect our neighbors as those whom we confess to be created in God’s image and likeness, so that together we may work out issues which divide us. God calls us into community and we are stronger together, even, or perhaps especially, when choosing community is hard work. Somehow, though, that prayer, hopeful and comforting as I find it, didn’t seem as I thought about it through the day to be enough for us to pray in this moment. It seemed like there was more we were being invited to pray together as God’s people in this season. I came across a prayer called “God’s Justice be done on Earth” attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. which for me gets to the heart of our calling in this season, and the aspiration at the center of our American project.

Let us pray together using Dr. King’s words.

“O Lord, Love incarnate,
                for this you have come among us
                to set the captive free,
                to give sight to the blind,
                to free the oppressed,
                to proclaim the good news to the poor.
Help us to follow the footsteps of Christ
                and live out Your love.
May Your Kingdom of justice come.
O Lord, You who search the human heart
                You are concerned with our world,
                attentive to every act of injustice, suffering,
                oppression, and deceit.
May the Holy Spirit enlighten our hearts
                that we may rebuke ourselves on account of sin,
                righteousness and judgment,
                and turn back to You.
May Your Kingdom of justice come.
Now we whom You have freed
                cry out to You with one voice:
Help us who have received mercy to be merciful
                to those who are oppressed and wronged
                and we ask that according to Your mercy and grace,
                they may receive Your compassion.
May Your Kingdom of justice come.
O Lord, Your love and mercy
                have been revealed on Earth;
For the sake of Christ and all those
                who truly follow Him.
With justice and righteousness,
                You will establish the kingdom.
May Your justice and praise
                spring up before all nations,
                for the zeal of the Lord will accomplish it.
Yes, Jesus,
I want to be on Your right side or Your left side.
                not for any selfish reason,
I want to be on Your right side or Your best side
                not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition but I just to be there
                in love and in justice and in truth
                and in commitment to others,
                so we can make of this old world a new world,
Amen.”

May we be committed ever so, for the sake of the Gospel and the sake of the world. Amen.