Day 116: A Week of Prayer for Our Nation in Crisis - For Cities

DAY 116

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

Week Seventeen – Wednesday 8 July 2020

A WEEK OF PRAYER FOR OUR NATION IN CRISIS

For Cities

Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of that holy city to which the nations of the world bring their glory: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth. Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life. Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate poverty, prejudice, and oppression, that peace may prevail with righteousness, and justice with order, and that men and women from different cultures and with differing talents may find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer: Prayers for the Social Order

“Our Cities Cry to You”

Our cities cry to you, O God, from out their pain and strife;

You made us for yourself alone, but we choose alien life.

Our goals are pleasure, gold and power, injustice stalks our earth;

In vain we seek for rest, for joy, for sense of human worth.

Yet still you walk our streets, O Christ, we know your presence here,                                            

Where humble Christians love and serve in godly grace and fear.                                                            O Word made flesh, be seen in us! May all we say and do,                                                                    

Affirm you God Incarnate still and turn sad hearts to you.

Your people are your hands and feet to serve your world today,

Our lives the book our cities read to help them find their way.

O pour your sovereign Spirit out on heart and will and brain;

Inspire your Church with love and power to ease our cities’ pain!                                                              

O healing Savior, Prince of Peace, salvation’s Source and Sum,                                                              

For you our broken cities cry – O come, Lord Jesus come!                                                           

With truth your royal diadem, with righteousness your rod,                                                               

O come, Lord Jesus, bring to earth, the City of our God!                                                                                           

- Margaret Clarkson (1915-2008) © 1987 Hope Publishing Company 

As riots and protests mark and mar our cities once again, may the prayer above and the text of this hymn, also a prayer, guide our praying for the cities of this great nation of ours, that healing and hope, civility and conversation, respect and relationships and change may emerge from it all.

Reflective question: Will you ask God to put one city in your heart and then pray for it daily?

Reflective Scripture: Luke 19:41 – “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.”