People's Prayers: July 2025

For Sunday, July 6, 2025; Readings: Jeremiah 29:1-14, Psalm 33:8-15, James 5:7-11, Luke 21:29-36

For surely I know the plans I have planned for you all—an utterance of the Ancient of Days—plans for your well-being and not for evil, to give you all a future and hope. Then when you all call upon me and you come and you all pray to me, I shall hear you. And when you all seek me, you shall find me; if you all seek me with your whole heart. I will be found by you all, an utterance of the Gracious God, and I shall reverse your captivity and gather you all… [Jeremiah 29:11-14]

The Mighty One shatters the counsel of the nations, she disallows the designs of the peoples. The counsel of the Wisdom of the Ages stands forever; the designs of her heart to all generations… Our soul waits for She Who Saves; she is our help and shield. In her is our heart glad, because we trust in her holy Name. Let your faithful love, Compassionate God, be upon us, for it is in you in whom we trust. [Psalm 33:10-11, 20-22]

Be patient, therefore, kindred, until the coming of the Redeemer…Do not grumble against one another beloved, so that you may not be judged… See here, we bless those who showed endurance. Of the endurance of Job you have heard; and you have all seen the end goal of the Holy One, that the Holy One is compassionate and merciful. [James 5:7a,9,11]

“…Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.Be alert to yourselves so that your hearts are not weighed down with self-indulgence and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day catch you suddenly. Like a trap! For it will come upon all who live upon the face of the whole earth. Stay awake at all times, praying so that you might have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Woman.” [Luke 21:33-36]

There is nothing new happening in the world. The world is and has always been a fearsome place for many. Wars, threats of war, battles for power, hate mongering, violence, poverty and desperation, bad governance, extreme weather, and multiple other catastrophes destroy lives daily everywhere around the globe. We are always in the fields of ancient and new history and humanity. And, there are more of us now than ever before and we think that we know more, given the increasing growth of “news” purveyors and the rapid-fire of the broken "breaking news," misinformation, disinformation availability. And then there’s the “viral” and manipulated Us vs Them constantly screaming through ever-multiplying social media options, and we weary ourselves and our spirits as we enter into the fray of alternating chaos or collapse in paralyzing ambivalence and/or addictive self-indulgence.

The readings in this week’s Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church* are incredibly timely. Dr. Gafney, in her lectionary notes, says, “This week’s readings are situated in moments that call for patience we may not have or do not wish to develop.” While social media outlets burn with verbal punching and shoving in a show of anonymous power jabs, lack of patience–to say the least—gives way to completely mind-numbing “entertainment” options of alleged “reality” tv, easy online gambling, and even easier delivery to your door options for food, alcohol, and perhaps more. Every now and then some of us look up from the impatience of doom-scrolling to wonder when things will return to normal, whatever and however that is perceived. If you’ve ever been close to someone who has been in the military and spent time in a war zone, even coming home after the fact has a relatively short moment of relief and longer moments of disappointment that there is no return to whatever normal once seemed to be.

Jeremiah is preparing the now deported Israelites to learn to live their new life in a new land under the rule of their conquerors. He even tells them to pray for the city in which they are captive and not to give into despair. Yes, God is always present and God’s great plans for them will one day reverse their captivity, however, the timeline is far from immediate.

While the psalmist offers words of hope and trust in God’s promises, again there is no specific end date all the while giving an impression of generations to pass before their promised liberation. Of course looking more closely, clearly many will die long before the restoration to their homeland. And, I wonder about those born and raised to adulthood in this exile, perhaps as a second or third generation ~ how does being “returned” to a land they never knew feel normal? The food, the housing, the language, the cultural changes… The most startling phrase, for me, is that God, the Mighty One, shatters the counsel of the nations… now there’s a conversation waiting, which counsel does one wish to be shattered? It is a hopeful thought, if even opinions differ.

And, then, comes James commending us to patience and reminding us of the endurance of Job. As an aside, Dr. Gafney tells us that that Job isn’t the one in the biblical canon with his name on it demanding that God account for the imposed afflictions, as that was written by someone who wrote in Job’s name. The patient enduring Job is a character whose stories probably pre-date the Hebrew Bible.

Jesus, in Luke’s Gospel passage, seems to be saying “Hang on, things are getting ready to change.” And in every single generation from Jesus’s time until now there are those who believe that He is coming, soon, get ready, stay ready! What about those in our midst who have experienced the terror of state-sponsored violence that seems to be spreading rapidly. How long can people of color, and those who have immigrated from other places and cultures, asylum seekers frightened of being sent back, those scorned due to poverty and homelessness, how can others, even in better life circumstances, hold on to these multigenerational promises?

Okay, let us put down the phone, resist the doom-scroll, take a break from social media, avoid vacuous distractions, and breathe in deeply of the hope and trust we are given by Jeremiah, the Psalmist, James, even Job. Jesus promises that one day, whatever we experience in this life, we will stand before the Son of Woman if we stay alert and pray to escape what may befall us. But, how can we not entertain the question, and the hope in the answer, by this excerpt from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech in Montgomery, Alabama in March 1965 after the march from Selma:

How long? Not long.

Truth forever on the scaffold,

Wrong forever on the throne,

Yet that scaffold sways the future,

And, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow,

Keeping watch above his own.

How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

And though many generations have gone and well may still go before we stand as One before the Son of Woman, let us carry the hearts and souls of those who have gone before as we keep staying ready however long it may be.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ GRACIOUS GOD, fill our souls with the patience and endurance of Job, and strengthen our hearts through difficult times. Remind us often to trust in your Holy Name, in your faithful love, and in your enduring mercy, deeply knowing that you hear our every prayer.

COMPASSIONATE GOD

RESPONSE: You are our Hope and our Shield

~ GRACIOUS GOD, enter the minds and intentions of those in political power across this planet, to shatter the counsel of wicked design. O WISDOM OF THE AGES, imbue the leaders of every country with the designs of your heart for all generations, and reverse all evil actions that hold your people captive. We pray especially for: the President, the Vice-President, our Members of Congress, our Governor, our County Executive, our City Council, and our Mayor.

COMPASSIONATE GOD