Praying Transformation for the Enemies of God’s Children

Keeping a close watch on Jesus, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.” From Luke 20

Today has been heavy. I am convinced that godly grief is a constant exercise. That is, I am experiencing the spiritual impossibility of being a person who does not mourn without hope. Stony the road we trod. I tried to pray this morning, specifically in the focus of showing God’s love for enemies, and I could not bring myself to pray for folks like these spies - let alone for the people who sent them. 

Have you been talked about? Made into someone’s mission of death or destruction? The stories of Holy Week teach some hard lessons about trust and betrayal. Obviously the famous story is Judas betraying Jesus. The story in Luke 20 is meaningful as well. The Spirit is speaking to us through it today.

Recently some spies from the temples of nationalism and greed infiltrated the zoom meeting of an organization working for Black liberation. They were told to stick around and learn something. When Jesus discerned the duplicity of the spies in the temple, he responded in the same way. He addressed the false question because he was sent to drive out duplicity with truth. He saw the trap laid for a conversation about money, and met the need for a lesson from the Lord about duplicitous living. In other words, as the old folks say, “he looked beyond their faults and saw their need.”

Jesus astonishes our self-preservation. He astonishes both the betrayed and the betrayer.  By answering duplicity with wholeness, he is able to cut through the hatred that pretends to be praise. Lean on this, beloved, that you might spare yourself the pain of feeling lied on and lied to. That you might have the power to face the spies sent by an abuser you cannot seem to escape: be it ex or executive, foe or frenemy.

The Bible says whoever loves money never has enough. While I do feel led today to pray for people who worship money (for they/we are enemies of God’s children), I am also convinced that Jesus was not speaking of money in this instance. He was talking about souls. But oh for the love of money, for the love of all kinds of capital, what won’t we do to hoard the riches of God that do not belong to us?

On this day my heart aches for the people who have been treated as if we bear Caesar's imprint but not God’s. My heart aches for the bodies that are treated as coins to be traded, rewards to be demanded, profit to be attributed as wealth for persons and organizations to whom no sacrifice should ever be due. I am aching for the church bodies whose continuing meetings are made into nationalist monuments while people get sick and die.

I ache for the people whose abusers break boundaries every day. I weep for the 12 who lost their lives in St. Louis city. I ache for the people who have lived longer than 50 years- whose families feel forced to sign DNRs when they take ill… whose DNRs are treated as license to withdraw care while there is light and fight still left in them. 

There is no reason to ignore us. There is no reason to let us die. 

We are not tax incentives. We are not tokens. We are not denari.

People perish when power is duplicitous. 

People perish when we loathe each other but call it love.

Today we pray for peace in the valley of the shadow of death. Today we pray - again, as ever - for a feast to be set in the presence of our enemies. Today I pray to a Lord who listens, for a duplicitous people, that the spies in our midst might be shown their sickness and long to be made whole. 

Let’s pray together. Lord of Wholeness. What little we have left in us, what crumbs of attention that remain, after days of distractions, nights of fear and turmoil, we offer these in sadness to you this morning. We are empty once again. Each of your new morning mercies used up to bridle tongues, speak life and seek healing in spaces where we are tempted to despair. We need them again, Lord. We are trying to learn and trying to listen. Precious Holy Spirit, please come fill us again. Send the word like a hammer that breaks our chains, like a temper cooling, sadness soothing, mighty rushing wind. We love your word, O God, we need a word from you.

[Reading scripture, out loud if you’re able]

For compassion with people who are exploited, we reflect with the teacher in Ecclesiastes:

“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep. I have seen grievous evils under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners, and income lost entirely because of catastrophe, so that there is nothing left for children to inherit.” Ecclesiastes 5

For conviction concerning people who exploit God’s children, we reflect on the words of Jesus:

 “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, 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? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5

Listen, Lord. Those who love money and despise the soul, they are enemies of your children. They cause us to hate it here. Will you break their strangleholds from our necks? We need your transforming power to take over them today. Change them, O God, and please change us too, for we know that in our privilege and pride we become them. 

Listen, Lord: we are workers exploited. We are patients from whom care is withdrawn. We are seen as a burden. We are worthy of opportunity but referred to as a threat, or worse, seen as the neglectable non-threatening. We need your power today, O God. We need you to change the circumstances of our existence. We need your renewed mercies so that we can continue to trust! Help us to trust you, Lord. Help us to stay strong and to refuse to show the hate that is fired upon us in the enemy’s constant attack.

Transform the people who cause turmoil to your children. Shine the light of truth on the spies in our midst. Set us free from the sinister wickedness of white moderates. Relieve us from the weight of gullible and greedy governors. Undo the destructive acts of lawmakers who repress voices and twist votes. Deliver us from aggression and oppression, and make our oppressors repent of their wicked ways. Show them the way to honor us as God’s wealth and no longer claim our lives as their property.

Listen, Lord: we are thwarted and abused. We are unable to escape the people who treat us as if we are imprinted with their image and not our own. Will you transform them? Right now O Lord, right now! The abuser’s presence is court-mandated. The abuser’s presence is built-in to our living situations. The abuser controls our academic success, sets our work schedule, signs our paychecks, sits in our homes, signs our charts. 

Teach them to hear you, to love you and to desire you above their appetites of fear and control. Move them to return unto God these your children, who came from God and belong to God. 

Lord, save the soul of every closeted racist who pretends to care. From the pulpit to the classroom, from the hospital to the hotel, let your transformation flow like justice’s mighty waters. Fill their empty hearts with ever-flowing streams of holy love. Transform every spy and suckling of white supremacist terrorism in the name of Jesus. Move them and transform them. Build a high boundary between us and our abusers. Make them sit still and learn the dignity you have bestowed on your children. 

Lord we are working our hands to the bone, only to be told that our employment is ending, our jobs are disappearing, and all of our bills are due yesterday. Any savings we have tried to faithfully store will now be naught. There will never be enough for our basic needs, because of the people who love money and will not give to show love to the riches of your creation. We need you to expand the hearts and minds of every capitalist who is alive, Lord. Show them how to reflect your care, and keep us safe from their evils - intended and accidental - even as you turn them to the fullness of your good. 

Let these, our enemies, return themselves to you. O Lord of new hearts, new purpose and new future. Show them the imprint of your image on themselves. Bring them to a labor of grief that births righteous mourning. And deliver them out of the long night of torment into the marvelous light of mutuality.

God has spoken once, and twice have we heard this; power belongs - Not to us, O Lord, not to us!!  All power belongs to God, from whom all people derive our names. Listen, Lord: we are all your children, and we would pray your mercy, love and justice to transform. Amen.

Experience: Standing Up for Change Exhibit at National Women’s HIstory Museum

https://www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/standing-up-for-change

Songs: All of My Help, Geoffrey Golden // Mountains of Gold, Kamasi Washington