NIGHT PRAYER: Sunday 9/6

 

On Sundays, Night Prayer takes its lead from some element in the day's liturgy.  All three readings at mass today (Ezekiel, Romans and Matthew) deal with fraternal correction offered in justice and in love. The political season we find ourselves in is rife with corrective rhetoric - not always of the kind the scriptures encourage...

 

This Labor Day weekend, Lord,

    so close to the mid-terms,

I'm thinking about some work I need to do...

I need to work harder at understanding folks
    whose politics are different from mine...  

I need to work at moving
   - beyond the slogans and sound bites 
   - through what I judge  

        to be half-truths and deceptions  
   - above the sarcastic and snarky, 
   - out of my own bias and prejudice
   - around my stubborn resistance, 
   - apart from my untested theses
   - and into the possibility that I might not be 

        the sole possessor of truth... 

I need to dig deeper, Lord,
    to see what the other side sees as good and just
        - where I don't see it at all...

I need to work harder, Lord,
    at accepting that others' beliefs, like my own, 

are based on reason, good will and justice 

    as they perceive and understand it...

I need to work at acknowledging:
   - that they're as sincere in their beliefs
         as my side is in ours
  - that not all the bad guys are on their side
         and not all the good guys are on mine
  - that neither side has all the answers:
       we're all sometimes right
          and we're all sometimes wrong...

So, that's the hard work ahead of me, Lord,

and to complete it I need to let go of

   - my pride and rigid intransigence,

   - the conviction that I am always right

   - the notion that some folks 

        have nothing to teach me

   - thinking I've sufficiently studied

        and though through all my positions

   - assuming you're surely on my side, Lord,

         and want nothing to do with the other...

 

That's a lot of work to do

    and to achieve I'll need some peace and quiet

        to ponder, study and seek the truth 
    so protect me, Lord, while I'm still awake
        and watch over me as I sleep
    that awake, I might keep watch with you
        and asleep, rest in your peace...

Amen.

Before You I Kneel: A Worker's Prayer 
    by Stuart Towned and Keith Getty

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Before You I kneel, my Master and Maker,
To offer the work of my hands.

For this is the day You've given Your servant;
I will rejoice and be glad
For the strength I have to live and breathe,
For each skill Your grace has given me,
For the needs and opportunities
That will glorify Your great name.

 

Before You I kneel and ask for Your goodness
To cover the work of my hands.
For patience and peace to shape all my labor,
Your grace for thorns in my path.

 

Flow within me like a living stream,
Wear away the stones of pride and greed
'Til Your ways are dwelling deep in me
And a harvest of life is grown.

 

Before You we kneel, our Master and Maker;
Establish the work of our hands.
And order our steps to seek first Your kingdom
In every small and great task.

May we live the gospel of Your grace,
Serve Your purpose in our fleeting days,
Then our lives will bring eternal praise
And all glory to Your great name.

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