Saturday prayer – extremists in peace, mercy, love

Oh dear God.

Once again, violence, blood, death.

This time in Beirut, in Baghdad, in Paris.

Oh dear God.

Once again we weep, we light candles, we cry your name

on behalf of the slaughtered and those who love them.

Oh dear God.

Even as we weep, move our wounded hearts

and stir our weary souls to action.

Make us no longer willing to have

“religious extremists”

be a label applied only to

those who terrorize and kill.

Make our congregations extremists in Your peace.

Let the headlines blare not of those who kill but those who heal

beyond the bounds of moderation.

Make our congregations extremists in Your mercy,

mercy that is so far beyond the ordinary

that it ripples around in the world

in shockwaves not of desolation but of hope.

Make our congregations extremists in Your love,

Create in our communities such depths of compassion,

That all the world can draw on it, as living water from a bottomless well.

Oh dear God.

Breathe into us a new word for the creation of a new world,

one of extreme consolation and even, one day, exceeding great joy.

Amen.