A 'Thy Kingdom Come' Prayer For These Days

God of Grace and Mercy ... the world that you have placed into our care has been shattered by the sounds of gunshots, by the hearts of those who hate, by the sobs of the grieving and by the cries of the world.  What has happened to us?  Have you become a convenience to us, to be called upon only in times such as these?  Have we forgotten the ways of your Love?  Forgive us.  O God, we cry out to you in ways that hardly seem like prayers. Embrace the families and friends of those who have died by the hands of another as well as those who were wounded by those same hands.  Embrace also those who have been wounded by words. Pour out your healing and loving Spirit into their lives and into our world.  Change us ... change us.

Now, as we sit in our silence and even in your moments of silence, our hearts weep with you, O God, and with all those whose lives have forever been changed by hate. We are gasping.  Help us to breathe again. We pray for love and respect to overcome hate and disregard in this world. Move us to look the way of others. Draw us near to one another and even nearer to you. Open our hearts to listen to the stories of others. Open our eyes to see through your Love. Make us your agents of love and peace. We lift our lives and our world to you, God of Love, for we stumble and fall so often in our own efforts. We pray that your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

"Help Me to Be an Oxymoron" (Luke 10:25-37)

Good Samaritan.

I searched 

and the word

‘oxymoron’

doesn’t appear

in my Bible.

Good Samaritan.

It’s much like 

jumbo shrimp

or freezer burn,

you know.

The two words

don’t seem to go together

for we read

that there is nothing good 

about a Samaritan.

But maybe, just maybe

that which Jesus asks

from each of us

is to become an oxymoron!

Perhaps Jesus' teachings and example

proclaim that two opposites

will become kingdom words.

O God …

help me to be 

an oxymoron.

A generous giver.

A compassionate Christian.

A loving neighbor.

A good Samaritan.

"You Want Me to Say WHAT????" (ponderings on Luke 10:25-37)

My Grandmother Lazenby never said the word 'Vinegar'.  At least my mother can’t remember her ever saying the word.  As grandchildren, we would try to teach her how to say it.  "Say the name RENEGAR, Grandmommy", we would say (knowing that she knew how to say that surname).   "Renegar", she would say, just as pretty as you please.  "Say the name VERNIE", we giggled. "Vernie", she said.   "Now say the word VINEGAR.  Her lips shut tightly and she would look at us. Then she would say, "Sour Stuff" and walk away.  I thought for sure she would say the word 'Vinegar' if I asked.  But noooooo.  She refused, never admitting she couldn't (or wouldn't) and never telling us why.  She just couldn't choke out the word 'Vinegar'.

As I read the interchange between Jesus and the lawyer (with the story of the Good Samaritan thrown into the middle), I feel as if this lawyer is doing what my grandmother did except for a different reason.  The way that Jesus draws the lawyer into answering his own question is masterful.  Then the lawyer tries to put parameters around the word 'neighbor' hoping that Jesus' response would be a comfortable definition of 'neighbor'.

The story of the Good Samaritan, to me, is secondary.  Jesus tells the story and then asks the lawyer another question.  "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

And here is where I can almost hear my grandmother clam up when asked to say 'Vinegar' ... and then says, "Sour Stuff."  Can't you just hear the lawyer answering Jesus? "The Smmmm.  The Sammmmm.  The, the, the ... the one who showed him mercy."  He couldn't even say 'Samaritan'. So why do we think that this lawyer could love a Samaritan if a Samaritan proved to be his 'neighbor'?   Hmmmmmm.

Grandmommy never said 'Vinegar'.  She refused.  I hope that our friend, the lawyer, at least tried to say the word 'Samaritan', tried to look the way of such a neighbor, tried to move toward loving his neighbors.   We don't know beyond Jesus' words of "Go and do likewise".  We can only hope ... for we are more like this lawyer than we would care to admit at times.