Jesus taught in Luke 6:27-28, "But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."
On the surface of this teaching we can agree that we should pray for all people, even our enemies. The deeper struggle with this passage is what if we are the oppressed, what if the hate directed at us is in the form of violence, what if I am the abused? Am I to honor this other with empty words of prayer? What am I to pray for? Will praying stop my enemy from lying about me? Will praying hold the hand of the one who hates me? Will praying stop the rain of abuse?
I am thinking about these things as we move into the second month of a new year. For many of us 2021 does not appear to be much different from 2020. What good are prayers for the hungry, the oppressed, and those I hate? What should I pray? Yet, Jesus was just accosted by the Pharisees who were out to get him, to find him violating the law of the prophets so they could at a minimum call him a heretic, or better a reason to arrest him. What does Jesus do after this confrontation? In Luke 6:12 the narrator says, "Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God."
It seems that maybe I need to rethink what prayer really is about. I think to often I think prayer is about wanting nice things for the other, for healing, for goodness for the other. I wonder if prayer should be more about asking God to open our eyes to the way forward. To help us gain courage to speak a word of truth. To help us focus on what we are called to in the midst of a hard life. For Jesus it was helping him set his face forward for the work ahead, curing, healing, and speaking truth to the enemy, holding up a mirror to the oppressor, and halting the hand of abuse.
As we think about who we are as a congregation, I think it is helpful to remind ourselves that living a life of prayer is to bring our selves in line with God and God's good work that is put before us, to confront our enemies with love, to confront the oppressor with God's righteousness, to hold the hand of the abuser accountable.
Good people, thank you for being partners in prayer for this God of grace. God's Work, Our Hands.
