Praying Transformation for the Enemies of God’s Children

And when Jesus drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. - Luke 19

As Jesus cleansed the temple, we need him to drive out the fatal foolishness that feeds our unrest. As Jesus challenged the religious rulers who tried to silence his worshippers, we need the Lord to stir up His church to cry out and shout.

We need God to teach us co-passion with the oppressed, and to teach us right response to the enemies of God’s children. I have been studying the 21st Century abolition ethic for a few years now, and I am astonished at how deeply spiritual the journey has been for me. We don’t have time to give that subject the respect it deserves, but I have walked through the wilderness of striving to live and love like Jesus, and I am daily convicted by the words of the Lord when we instituted a new way of life for everyone who claims to be a person of goodwill. I am still inspired to let my lament direct my prayers, because I believe it is the Holy Spirit who has summoned me to submit my attitudes to them in this season of grief and rage. 

I am also convicted as I learn more about Jesus’s humility, that emboldened him to drive out the people he would later sacrifice for, to defend the crowds who would later prove to be hypocrites. What manner of man is this that even on his death march he has energy to do justice, and love mercy? Surely this is the Messiah of God. Let’s lean on him together. 

Reflections from scripture: read the passages out loud if you can.

For conviction concerning the enemies of God’s children: reflect with Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5

For co-passion with the oppressed: reflect with the teacher, the wise king in Ecclesiastes

Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed— and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors— and they have no comforter. And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. But better than both is the one who has never been born, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun. Ecclesiastes 4

Let’s pray together.

Lord we are coming to you this morning, knees bowed and bodies bent, in the weariness of our waiting, in the anxiety of our mounting questions that remain unanswered. We are looking beyond the hills, straining our eyes to see if our help is coming… is King Jesus still planning to ride by on this day? Will we catch sight of the Savior to whom we have cried Hosanna, salvation, Lord!? 

Your word tells us “it is better to enter a house of mourning than one of feasting”, and right now we got that on lock. We are moved in and shut in. O Lord, stretch out, look low, and listen close. We are clinging to your stories today O God, we are following the actions of your passions. You know that your children are suffering, you know that your children are dying, you can see that the nations are in upheaval and that many of your households are being turned to robbers' dens. Teach us the power of your wisdom, help us to pray the prayers that we must, even though we feel unable. 

Listen Lord, racism is our enemy. Asian bodies are at risk because of baseless blaming. Black bodies fall ill and perish first because of medical apartheid and a perceived dramatization of pain. We hate it here. We hate the misery that is suffered unjustly. We hate the growing numbers of death by bigotry and hatred. 

We are straining ourselves not to wish them evil. We need you to bridle our tongues, and let our words edify. Will you humble our hearts and silence our arrogance? Will you teach us to pray in your perfect way- help us to lift up the murderers, liars and thieves that you have the power to transform. 

Pierce the stone hearts of every racist, every bigot, every ageist, every ableist on the face of this earth. Even us Lord, even me Lord, transform us right now in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Change the mindset of the man in Mississippi who spat in the face of his Black nurse. Change the heart of the doctors who refuse care to Black people knowing that they should and are more than able to have compassion on them. Replace the callous hearts of malice that devise to prey upon Asian peoples and do harm to them. Remove the specks and planks from eyes that detest queer people and refuse to respect your trans children.Deliver future generations from the evils of hatred that so many have inherited. Destroy the yoke of whiteness in every household held captive to its fabricated force. We are asking you to set the captives free and then set the captors straight. 

Listen Lord, foolish leaders are our enemy. What words are left to say that have not confused and cursed us as we perish on the land, at their hands? The mayor of St. Louis city long ago turned her back on the unhoused and the incarcerated. The regime in federal government makes a daily habit of smiting the lowly, refusing the refugee, robbing the Black and brown. Your native and impoverished children waste away in four seasons of drought by design, by water profiteering and hypocrisy hidden in plain sight. Lord we live in wastelands without wells, and we hate it here. Will you work a miracle, Waymaker of old? Bring salvation to the self-centered and sin-sick people you know need to be changed. 

Do not delay, and do not tarry to cleanse the money and fear mongers from your own temples. 

Lord, transform your church. Send a vision of new direction to the faith leaders, teachers and pastors who are planning to gather in close spaces pitting so-called fellowship against the facts. Turn your under-shepherds from their ways of wickedness and foolishness in response to this global pandemic. Re-educate the teachers of your law who fail to lead our little ones in righteous ways. Release the enslaved, surface the drowning, deprogram the deluded. 

Transform O God, transform. Transform the teachers who claim to lead your church into people who speak truth to power and see you in solidarity with the oppressed.

Change the attitudes, vision, and direction of the supreme leader of the current regime in the United States, O Lord. Change everything about the regime itself. Interrupt the plans of his council people and followers, shine a light of knowledge and holiness on his path and lead him to salvation. Make them love confession, make them love kindness, let them hunger and thirst for righteousness. Give them a Zaccheus testimony and let them rejoice in seeing the Savior invite them to be transformed by the blessing of God’s presence. Send renewing energies to the subversives in their camp, O Lord. Change these regime rulers into people who work for your reign of peace.

Listen Lord, we pray in faith for your power over the people who overpower us. You’ve told us that it is not your will for anyone to perish, but Lord how these times and your enemies mock your wisdom. We hate the numbers of your children who perish at the hands of pied pipers. We hate the corruption that claims your name.

Lord there must be an end to all of this evil under the sun, there must be a time of feasting after these days of mourning. But as long as these days rage on, we will lament and plead your grace. We would have you to have your way O God, to tarry no longer and come down to us, Lord. Come and put death to death, come end the reign of wickedness. Come and make oppression cease. Emmanuel, Hosanna, Amen.

Song: I Love the Lord, Richard Smallwood

Experience: MoCADA Museum digital archives [Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn NY] http://mocada.org/digital