Prayer Helps Us to Keep Walking For a Better World

 So it is campaign time again.

For me, this can only mean one thing.

It is also silly season.

That time when politicians promise us that they can solve all the problems if we only elect them.

Inflation is no problem, just elected me or my party and all will be well.

Are you worried about climate change, no problem vote for me and it will be done.

And then there are the countless ads debasing the other team with name-calling.

In fact, this seems to be most of our political discourse these days, calling each other names.

 

The thing that has me upset this political season is that every politician who is running for office wants to win by piling on immigrants.

Every single one of them is trying to see who can be meaner and tougher on immigration.

They are trying to scare us into voting for them on the backs of poor migrants of color in South America.

They are casting them as the bogeymen who are coming to take over our country.

I mention this today because I try really hard to not be cynical about the world, and about people, and politicians make that really hard.

It seems that politics are not about actually helping people, but about getting elected and having power.

It seems to be bringing out the worst in us as people.

That all of our pettiness and self-interest come out when we discuss very serious issues like immigration.

We talk a lot about our Christianity but seem to leave our compassion and mercy at the door when it comes to certain issues.

 

For those that don't remember, before the pandemic twice a month people of faith gathered at the ICE building in Manchester to pray and walk for our immigrant siblings.

We pray and walk for justice, compassion, and love.

We would pray and walk that the walls of this world that separate us would come down.

I got to do that again a couple of weeks ago.

I was walking with one of the Latine advocates from Manchester.

She was sharing her story of being bullied, looked down on, and made to feel less than as a child because she was an immigrant.

It was also a story of her resilience in the face of it all.

 

I started to really care about the immigration issue in seminary about 20 years ago.

I had the pleasure of serving in a Latine congregation, during my first two years of seminary, and I saw firsthand the struggles of immigrants and the injustices they face.

And since that time it has only gotten worse and our politics meaner.

My friend who I walked with in Manchester has been fighting this fight her entire life, much longer than me.

Here we were walking, talking, praying for something new to happen.

In faith, in hope, we walked and prayed for a new day to dawn.

I wish I could vote for a pro-immigrant candidate this election but there is no one to speak up for them.

 

So all I have is prayer.

All I have is my faith in God's promise of a new day, a better day.

Jesus brought the hope of that promise into focus.

It is how Luke's Gospel starts with Mary singing about the reversal of the world.

"God has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the pride in the thoughts of their hearts;
⁵² God has brought down the mighty from their thrones
    and exalted those of humble estate;
⁵³ God has filled the hungry with good things,
    and the rich God has sent away empty."

The disciples have seen this in the life and ministry of Jesus.

They are filled with expectations.

They are filled with the promise of this reversal.

What they can't see and don't know is that this will take place on the cross.

It will be Jesus' example of giving himself up to hatred and sin that will show us how to reverse the fortunes of the world.

Before our reading for today, Jesus tells his disciples that there will be difficult times ahead and that they will not see him for a long time.

He tells them that in losing their lives they will see the kingdom of God.

He tells them that the kingdom is hidden and not easily seen.

 

You could imagine that this is somewhat disheartening for the disciples.

They probably thought that Jesus with all of his power was going to ride in and kill all of the Romans and take power with them at his right and left hands.

This gets to the heart of our Gospel this morning.

"Will there be faith on earth when the son of man comes again?"

Will we still be praying to God for justice?

Will we still be giving up our lives for the sake of others?

Will we still be marching around buildings demanding compassion?

Will we still believe that God will bring justice?

Will we still believe in Mary's song?

Or will we grow so cynical that we just give up and stop trying?

 

It is not easy.

Most days I want to throw up my hands and be done with it all.

I want to stop caring, and stop walking and praying.

That is so much easier.

But then the Holy Spirit will intervene.

I will go to the march.

I will be with other faithful people who fill me with hope and faith.

 

This week a friend from camp, Joe, posted this on his Facebook page.

"My heart is heavy.

Reflecting on this journey.

I’ve made a boatload of mistakes.

I’d like to think that I’ve learned from them, but the truth is, I’m more stubborn than I’d like to be.

Not as open as I’d like to be.

Creator, help me to see my faults, help me to forgive and live in your words.

Help me to be a beacon of your love."

This prayer gave me hope this week.

It is a prayer that I pray to.

It was a Holy Spirit moment to see this, and it helped me less cynical about the world.

Maybe, if all of us could confess our shortcomings as my friend does here.

If all of us can see our own stubbornness, our own inability to see the suffering of others, our own need for God to help us love and care.

 

This is what Jesus is talking about this morning.

This is the answer to the world's silliness, meanness, injustice, and selfishness.

It is to turn to God.

To get out of our own way.

It is to get back into the streets and walk the walk.

It is to turn to community.

It is to listen closely to stories that others share about their pain and their resilience in the face of it.

And ultimately for Jesus, it is to pray.

To pray to God to give us the power to love.

Give us the courage to be like the women who pray day and night to the unjust judge.

It is to let that prayer, and those actions we do with others give us faith.

Faith in each other.

Faith in the world we live in.

And most importantly faith in God's ability to help us to love as Jesus showed us to love.

 

May you continue to pray always.

May it be prayers for justice for those living in poverty, those who are written off by politicians trying to win elections.

May it be a prayer for the promises of God's Kingdom to come to earth.

May it be a prayer that God changes your stubborn heart.

May it be a prayer that God fills you with love.

And may those prayers sustain your faith until the Son of Man comes again.

Amen