Monday Prayer

Before our Zoom screens, we sat and wept
    when we remembered the Before Times.
There on our ring lights, we hung our scripts,
And there our parishioners asked us for songs,
    our tormentors demanded songs unmasked;
    they said, “This isn’t real and you are causing suffering for no reason!”

How can we sing the songs of the Lord
    while in a pandemic of illness, of racism, of economic pain?
If I forget you, lessons of this time,
    may the Lord afflict me in whatever way seems fit.
May I be strengthened to survive this season,
perhaps retaining both hope and joy.

Remember, Lord, what the cruel ones did,
in the early days of the AIDS pandemic, as they say even now.
“Let them die,” they cry,
    “It is the Lord’s will!”
Forces of evil, doomed to destruction,
   your efforts may seem to be working,
but your failure is inevitable and is drawing near.
The ones who reject God’s will of love
will not triumph in the end.

Amen.

(A version of Psalm 137 for our time)

---

The Reverend Julia Seymour serves Big Timber Lutheran Church (ELCA)  in Big Timber, MT. She blogs sometimes at lutheranjulia.blogspot.com and readsallthethings.com. She serves on the board of RevGalBlogPals, Inc. and is working on a book about the fruits of the Spirit. 

---

RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back to the specific post. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.