Day 117: A Week of Prayer for Our Nation in Crisis - For the Oppressed

DAY 117

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 – Thursday 9 July 2020

A WEEK OF PRAYER FOR OUR NATION IN CRISIS

For the Oppressed

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer: Prayers for the Social Order

I missed her for several Sundays so I gave her a call. “Evalina, I’ve been missing you in church. How are you?” I asked. There was silence. “Tell me what’s going on.” I knew why she had stopped coming, but I wanted her to tell me. Finally, she said it: “I don’t want white folks to come to the church and not come back because they see a black person there.” “Evalina,” I said, “any white person who comes here and, seeing you in the congregation doesn’t come back is someone I don’t want in this church anyway.” She cried and was back in her pew the next Sunday.    

This was in a city where the KKK held a march downtown our first summer there, where the blacks live in a poor part of town that is a food desert, where the elite country clubs still do not admit blacks, and where some churches train their greeters to direct blacks to another church should they arrive at the door. Current protests for racial equality have their basis in reality.

And what about native Americans, oppressed and dispossessed from day one, and millions of Hispanics in our midst? We live in a broken world populated by broken people. And lest we miss the point, Jesus didn’t come for nice people who just needed a bit of freshening up: it took God on a cross to address our sinful nature which exhibits its worst when it turns on other human beings because of who they are and treats them as less. John 3:16 is a blanket that covers us all. May God have mercy on us as a nation at this time of social unrest and bring lasting change.

Reflective question: WWJD? Perhaps with all that is going on it is time to ask the question again.

Reflective Scripture: Romans 12:21 - “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Reflective hymn:

“Goodness is Stronger than Evil” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931-    )

Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate;

Light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death.

Victory is ours; victory is ours through God who loves us.