As the Horror Echoes, We Lament
As I write this I have a heavy heart. I have visited Israel many times and truly enjoyed the wonderful people I have encountered, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian. It is a place like no other, where the three great religions meet and where, ironically, hate and violence inhabits so deeply that it cuts to the soul.
Even so, these past few days we observed violence and tragedy, hatred and bitterness, death and destruction at levels we have not seen there in a long time. Without a doubt we, as Christians, stand with those who suffer grief and become victims of the heinous crimes of terrorists taking place in the lives of our Jewish brothers and sisters, as well as in the lives of the innocent Palestinian civilians. All these lives have been destroyed or traumatized and overcome by fear.
The Bible is filled with many types of literature, but if you read it often, you will discover lament. Lament is a prayer searching for understanding and peace in the midst of suffering or disheartening circumstances. This is the mood that captures what we are all feeling as death and destruction continues. Let us not forget the Ukrainians who have been experiencing this on a daily basis for a long time. There seems to be little respect for human life as bullets and bombs fly indiscriminately into innocent civilian populations.
What is taking place before our very eyes is really not something new. It comes from years of resentment, bitterness, hatred, and oppression. The wounds go deep, and healing is what we need to pray for even though it seems to be out of reach. As people of faith we must never give up and always work for peace and understanding, whether it be in Ukraine, in Moscow, in Jerusalem, or in Gaza, or for that matter, anywhere else where smoke is rising and lives are destroyed senselessly.
Our prayers go forth for the innocent victims and their families, whose hearts ache and whose lives have been devastated; for the hostages being held by Hamas; and for all who are in harm's way.
Let us pray:
Gracious God, grant peace among nations. Cleanse from our own hearts the seeds of strife: greed and envy, harsh misunderstandings and ill will, fear and desire for revenge. Make us quick to welcome ventures in cooperation among the peoples of the world, so that there may be woven the fabric of a common good too strong to be torn by the evil hands of war. In the time of opportunity, make us be diligent; and in the time of peril, let not our courage fail; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (ELW, p. 76)
MEH