These sick hearts,
they cry to you,
O God.
Battered and twisted,
weary and,
well, barely functioning,
These hearts, the very ones you gave us,
Hearts that have known joy and laughter,
Hearts that can sing even when they ache,
Hearts that pull through and fight on and scream out, too,
These hearts, that have worked so hard for so long,
They’re sick.
They’re sick with this.
These hearts are sick with grief and worry.
With sin and lament.
With the pain of our community,
The greed and corruption and oppression that squashes our neighbors,
That breaks our families,
That poisons our churches,
That chews up our children,
And sickens our hearts.
These hearts.
Your hearts.
O God of creation, O God of resurrection, O God of life and life again,
Pour down your holy balm,
Rain down some divine elixir,
Stitch the wounds with some thread of new hope,
Shock a whole new rhythm at us,
And heal these sickened hearts.
Free these muscles to move again,
Open these arteries to flow again,
To move and flow and beat and push,
with your love,
with your power,
with your passion,
with your strength.
Heal us. Heal every heart.
And make us to love
and hope and race and beat
and love again.
Amen.
Inspired by this week’s lectionary OT text, Jeremiah 8:18-9:1.
Rev. Erin Counihan serves as pastor at Oak Hill Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in St. Louis, MO. She really hopes you’ll join us this January at the RevGals Big Event!
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