Lamenting Injustice and Praying for Truth and Reconciliation
Invitation
READER: Come and hear our pain, O God. Come near and hear our complaint. Violence has sung a victory song, and our arms are hanging limp at our sides. Make us brave enough to stand in front of violence and call it a thief and liar.
ALL: In your mercy, make all things new again.
READER: Make us fearless, relentlessly waging peace instead of war. Refusing to accept any act that cuts, kills, and breaks down people made in your image.
ALL: As our Good Parent, make us passionate peacemakers again.
READER: God of all people and the whole creation, make us into who you have created us to be. Form us into your hands, your feet, your eyes, your mouth, and your body in the world.
ALL: Spirit of peace, connect us to the hurts of our Indigenous neighbours and siblings in Christ and all who are marginalized.
Lamentation
READER: Indigenous neighbours and siblings are hurting. In the name of Jesus Christ, antichrist injustices have been committed against them and against your Way. How do we, the church, hear their painful cry, and act together in solidarity? We pray ...
ALL: Lord, have mercy.
READER: Within the whole human family, people of color have experienced both interpersonal aggression and structural oppression instead of abundant life. We recognize and lament the harm racism has caused to Asian and Pacific Islander communities; African Descent communities; Indigenous American and Alaska Native communities; Indigenous Peoples within Canada; Arab and Middle Eastern communities; and Latinx communities. We cry out to you,
ALL: Hear our lament, O God.
READER: We have assigned the notion of race to human beings created in God’s own divine image. We have judged God’s beautiful diversity by our flawed and artificial standards. We cry out to you,
ALL: Hear our lament, O God.
READER: We have accepted practices in our churches and in our society that privilege whiteness over diversity and equity. We have been complicit in how racism continues to exclude and harm Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. We cry out to you,
ALL: Hear our lament, O God.
Confession
READER: Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbors.
ALL: Most merciful God, we confess that we passively and actively ignore and even accept racial injustice. Thoughts and words, in addition to actions, trespass against you and against our brothers and sisters. Forgive your children when we are unaware of inequality, unaware of white supremacy. God even when we want to love others, we fail to advocate for our sisters and brothers who are hurting and being unfairly treated.
Please show us the areas in our hearts and lives where we are guilty of prejudice. Please convict and then forgive your people for the acts we commit against your beloved image-bearers. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us desire and choose good over evil. Lord, transform us so that we, our families, our churches, our schools, and our nation, look first to build community and advocate for your reconciliation, your justice, and your truth—and not to build barriers.
Jesus, give us a renewed commitment to resist inequity as your Spirit binds us together in solidarity and the work against systemic sin: including where we knowingly and unknowingly contribute to it. Empower us to resist the evils of individualism and white supremacy, all for your Name’s sake. We confess that there is still much work to be done.
We are truly sorry and we humbly turn our hearts and lives back towards you. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your way of love, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
Sending
READER: O God of all, with wonderful diversity of languages and cultures you created all people in your own image. Free us from prejudice and fear, that we may see your face in the faces of our Indigenous siblings and people around the world; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
ALL: Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
READER: O God, rescue us from the bondage of racism and hate. Open our eyes to the subtle, deceitful ways these sins take control of our words, actions, and our hearts. And rescue us, our God, deliver us, take pity on us, save us, for as the Psalmist says, You alone do these marvelous things, and may the whole earth, may every nation, may your whole Creation, be filled with your Glory.
ALL:
Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever, Amen.
Source note: this liturgy is a compilation of many sources in the public domain but we thank with gratitude pastor and author Kurt Willems for his work in bringing this together.
