POSTPONED. Please pray for a resolution to the conflict in israel & Gaza
Note from Rev. Dr. Jeff McDonald:
It has been a sobering few days as we watch the news come in from Israel, Gaza, and surrounding areas. It is one of those moments that punches us in the gut, takes our breath away, causes our heart to skip. It is one of those moments that baffles our brains and makes our prayers catch in our throats. Ted Loder offers these words in his prayer book, Guerrillas of Grace:
How shall I pray?
Are tears prayers, Lord?
Are screams prayers,
or groans
or sighs
or curses?
Can trembling hands be lifted to you,
or clenched fists
or the cold sweat that trickles down my back
or the cramps that knot my stomach?
Will you accept my prayers, Lord,
my real prayers,
rooted in the muck and mud and rock of my life,
and not just my pretty, cut-flower, gracefully arranged
bouquet of words?
Loder’s prayer continues, but in that excerpt, I hope you are reminded of two things: 1) Lament in all of its forms is acceptable before God. You are allowed to be angry about the state of our world. You are allowed to messy in your prayers. 2) Romans 8:26 says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”
When you don’t have the words or the situation is so nuanced and complex that you’re not sure how to pray, the Spirit intercedes, knows what is needed and groans for you and our world. No matter what, we know that both Israelis and the Palestinians are suffering. Our Jewish neighbors are suffering. Our world is suffering. Let us go to God in prayer.
May you know peace this week,
Jeff