Comforter/Discomforter Prayer

August 6, 2006

 

We bow before you, O God, because you are our Comforter

The God who spoke through the prophet, saying, “Comfort, comfort my people,”

The God who cared for the baby Moses when he was a child in a basket,

The God who calmed the storm when the disciples were afraid,

Who brought hope and solace to the faithful when they thought they had lost their savior to death,

The God who has promised that in the end your kingdom will be one without crying or pain, where you will wipe the tear from every eye.

And so we pray for those who need your comfort.

We pray for frightened and war weary children in Iraq,

We pray for lonely and tired troops from our nation who serve there,

We pray for parents standing helplessly by hungry children in Africa,

We pray for those who are sick at home and in hospitals,

We pray for bewildered residents in nursing homes,

We pray for mourning families in funeral homes,

We pray for those scarred by battles quietly raging behind closed doors and well maintained facades in our homes.

Yet we also bow before you, O God, because you are our Discomforter.

The God who tossed a stubborn Jonah into the raging seas,

The God who struck Sarah dumb when she laughed at your promise of a miracle,

The God who struck Saul blind on the road to Damascus when he persecuted your people,

The God who spoke through your son, when he challenged people

To embrace the spiritually unclean,

To call the bluffs of the spiritually oh-so-clean,

To love enemies,

To give away possessions,

And to take up a cross.

O God, in your ultimate wisdom, we pray with urgency that you would bring comfort and discomfort to the Middle East.

Bring comfort to those ravaged by the evil and destruction of war,

And bring discomfort to those at ease in the embrace of hatred and revenge,

Bring comfort to those in Israel and in Lebanon who mourn the loss of someone dear to them,

And bring discomfort to those at ease with sending young men to die because old men refuse to find ways of settling their differences like human beings,

Bring comfort to those on both sides of this burning border as they go in the name of their faith to tend to the wounded and the homeless,

And bring discomfort indeed to those on both sides of the border who invoke the blessing of God on the monstrosity of war.

Lord, I, like many of us your children, have accepted the reality that in the world as we know it, there will be times when one’s defense may require taking up arms,

But shame us Lord when we are content for this to be the way the world remains.

Discomfort us when we are at ease with a status quo where burning shards of metal crash through ceilings onto kitchen tables.

Discomfort us when we are at ease with generations of young women and men who will live out their days with

missing legs,

and scarred faces,

and never ending nightmares.

O God, renew our commitment to be what Christians have always been: people of peace.

Help us, when we pray for peace, to mean it.

Remind us that one does not make peace with friends but with enemies.

And forgive us when the Evil One implants in our hearts the thought that revenge is better than peace.

And shut the mouths of all who proclaim that such a lie is the will of God.

 

Amen