A Time for prayer...

I was sucked into the television last Friday as we received over a foot of snow over night and school was canceled for Friday. This gave me the time to literally sit in front of the tv and watch the manhunt ensue as reporters and news stations did whatever they could to get those of us watching "breaking news". It wasn't too long that they same information was just being regurgitated and although I should have, I didn't turn the channel or turn the tv off, I found myself in prayer for the suspect. I could not seem to shake some internal sense for the need to pray for him. Every time his picture came across the television there was something, something that just didn't make sense. Well, some of you will say, of course it didn't make sense, he intentionally killed innocent people. Yes, I know; that isn't it though. I can't explain the overwhelming urge to pray and want to love like Jesus would love this person I don't even know. I really hesitate blogging about this, but the reality is that there aren't a whole lot of people that will read this and if they do, well I think that what I was being called to that Friday was / is something we as Christians and followers of Jesus are all called to. It isn't easy to pray for the enemy.... but we are called to do just that.

As I have been searching blogs and other internet postings on this side of the issue, I have found two posts that have made me feel OK about praying for Dzhokar. The first came Saturday night on the Facebook clergy page. Rich Melheim posted what he was going to be doing for his children's sermon on Sunday. When I read it, I wished I was doing the children's sermon at my church...

Rich Melheim A CHILDREN'S SERMON THAT CAN GET YOU IN TROUBLE TODAY (A Jesus kind of trouble, that is...)

Here's what I'm preaching for the children's sermon at Trinity in Lansdale this morning, after handing out paper and crayons:

I follow a Jesus who said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Any kind of kind kid can write a kind letter to the families of the victims of the Boston bombing, and every kind kid should.

It takes a Jesus kind of kind kid to write a kind letter to the boy who did this terrible thing.

Please take this back to the pew with you, and if God puts it on your heart to act the way Jesus would act toward people who hurt him, draw a picture of yourself, your house, your family or something beautiful that you love.

If you dare, explain that you are a Christian, and since you follow a Jesus who teaches you to love and forgive, you love and forgive him.

Close your letter saying Jesus loves him, and that you are praying one day he will know love and forgiveness. Tell him you hope and pray that one day love will crowd out the hate in his heart, and that he will be known as the kindest, most loving person in prison.

Rich Melheim

To: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
330 Brookline Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

To read the whole thread if you are a member of the ELCA clergy Facebook page click here.


The next came today, which prompted me to go ahead and blog this off my chest and out of head and heart. Professor Mary Hess from Luther Seminary and the professor for one of the classes I am taking this semester (Gospel and Global Media) posted on her blog something she read on another blog. I am going to link you to the blog of James Martin, SJ. His blog post is entitled, "Praying for the Dead, for Peace and for our Persecutors." I hope you take the time to read the entire blog, but here is the same excerpt that Professor Hess reposted:

But at some point in this process Christians are called, by Jesus, to pray for those who persecute us, to love our enemies–and even to forgive them. This doesn’t mean that we in any way condone what they did, or that we don’t hope that they receive a just punishment, or that we don’t do everything we can to capture criminals and bring them to swift justice. But we are called to do something more by Jesus: pray for them, love them, forgive them. As he said, if we pray only for those who do good to us, “what are you doing more than others”? Yes, it is hard. For me, it’s almost impossible. But this is what we are asked to do.

When they read this part of the Gospel, some people say that Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about. Jesus didn’t know our world, people say. Or maybe he was just naive. So, therefore, they say, we can ignore this statement. And so some Christians dismiss this part of the Gospel. But if as a Christian you say this, then you must admit that you are saying, in essence, that the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, God Incarnate, didn’t know what he was talking about. Or that Jesus of Nazareth, who himself lived in an extremely violent time, when life was held cheap, didn’t understand violence. Or that Jesus, who was himself the victim of a violent and unjust death, and who nonetheless forgave his executioners from the cross, didn’t have the moral stature to ask us to do this hard thing. And if you refuse even to try to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, and forgive those who sin against, then you are also saying that you are taking the first step in walking away from Jesus, just like some of the disciples did all those years ago. And where, I’ve always wondered, did they end up?

Here is a link to a Facebook conversation on the flip side saying that

It is disrespectful to those murdered and those maimed, and their families, to quickly jump to the Christian "we love and forgive the bomber" attitude. Michael Cofey

Here is a link to the conversation (if you belong to the ELCA Facebook clergy page)

It is indeed hard to pray for the enemy and for our persecutors, but we have too don't we? This isn't about saving the enemy from the justice system or punishment, but it is about being called to Love Like Jesus.