Rage

God of Love and Justice,
I do not pray for peace.
I pray for rage,
rage at the ways of evil and injustice,
rage that burns and transfigures this sick world.
I do not pray for mercy, but wrath
upon us who have power to speak and do not.
I do not pray for comfort, but for disturbance
that will not let us rest or wait,
but make us work and witness until we are done.
I do not pray for safety but fear,
fear for the souls of all of us
who shelter ourselves behind violence,
whose prayer shawls are soaked
with the tears of the oppressed.
I do not pray that you save us
from our evil. Let it burn in our hands
until we renounce it.
Let us who have exiled ourselves
suffer our loneliness
until we re-unite with those we have dismissed.
Let us stand outside the gates of paradise
until we enter the lives of those who suffer.
O God, you are today no Good Shepherd
but the Crucified Prisoner,
God of love and Justice,
for the sake of love and justice,
disturb us.

From the the daily blog Unfolding Light by Steve Garnaas-Holmes,

pastor of St. Matthew's United Methodist Church,

Acton, MA, and used with permission.