JUNE 3, 2020
O Lord, Our God, we bow before you, our Merciful Comforter, Consoler and Protector, in deep sorrow, weeping, wailing, and mourning the modern day public lynching of George Floyd, a 46 year old African American father of two daughters, handcuffed, lying face down on a Minneapolis city street during an arrest, as Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, callously kept his knee on Floyd's neck for almost 9 minutes snuffing out his cries of “I can’t breathe” with a camera rolling.
We cry out to you Almighty God, with an unending flood of tears and broken hearts for Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, jogging in his Georgia neighborhood; chased, shot down and killed by two white men, a father and son---not charged for 76 days.
And, Loving, Merciful and Righteous God, we come to you in righteous indignation, intense anger, and unspeakable pain over the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, an emergency room technician, by Louisville, Kentucky policemen while sleeping in her bed.
These heartless deaths, like that of Emmett Till, 66 years ago; that of Rodney King over 30 years ago; and countless unarmed black people, were all killed by America’s original sin---systemic racism that is a stench in your nostrils, O Righteous God. We cry out to you, Lord, God, over the lack of concern for Black lives and stand squarely on your promise in Romans 12:19 – “Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord.” We thank you for the multi-generational and multi-racial allies pleading our case before you and the authorities across the land.
God, we implore you now, be merciful to us ---step up and step in as only you can, with your strong arms and cause those in leadership to stop calling for peace until they have worked to dismantle systemic injustice that snuffed out the lives of these and others of your precious children. Help us Lord, not to return to a post-pandemic “normal” mired in inequality and injustice. Guide us instead to frame a new normal of freedom and equality that affirms in the hard days ahead, that until Black Lives Matter ---then no lives will truly matter – for all your children matter to you. In your matchless name we pray. AMEN