A Daily Prayer to Practice Anti-racism at Lent
God our Creator,
We affirm that You have made all people in Your image,
Instilling us with dignity,
Calling us good.
You created us in a beautiful array of colors,
Each one, fearfully and wonderfully made.
God, in overt and subtle ways, we have been taught a lie:
The lie of white supremacy.
The lie that white lives matter more than other lives.
This lie denies Your image In our non-white brothers and sisters.
We confess of consciously and unconsciously falling prey to this lie.
Eternal God, we confess the sins of our ancestors,
Ancestors who built systems to enrich and empower themselves
On the backs of millions of people of color.
They carried out genocide against indigenous peoples.
They enslaved Africans.
They used and abused immigrants.
The list of injustices goes ever on....
God, we confess to actively and passively maintaining a system that sins.
It denies healthcare to the needy,
Incarcerates at a profit,
Unjustly shoots precious lives...
When any of Your children suffer, our souls suffer too.
We confess that we fear the cost of following You, O God:
If we stand up for justice,
Our reputation may suffer.
If we stop ignoring cries of injustice,
We will lose the illusion of innocence.
Ending our sin of ‘no action’ means we have to get to work.
To ‘take up our cross’ is painful.
And so, God of Justice, we come to You.
Reveal to us our blind spots.
Surface our unconscious preferences.
Give us the courage to withstand honest self-examination.
Give us the strength to fight for change that relieves suffering and provides fairness.
Give us Your vision of the community You designed us to become.
This Lent, God of Mercy and Hope,
convict our hearts, stir our spirits, transform our minds.
May this transformation create a ripple that lasts beyond this season.
May it extend beyond our personal lives and into our communities.
May we be agents of Your liberating work in the world.
Amen.
God our Creator,
We affirm that You have made all people in Your image,
Instilling us with dignity,
Calling us good.
You created us in a beautiful array of colors,
Each one, fearfully and wonderfully made.
God, in overt and subtle ways, we have been taught a lie:
The lie of white supremacy.
The lie that white lives matter more than other lives.
This lie denies Your image In our non-white brothers and sisters.
We confess of consciously and unconsciously falling prey to this lie.
Eternal God, we confess the sins of our ancestors,
Ancestors who built systems to enrich and empower themselves
On the backs of millions of people of color.
They carried out genocide against indigenous peoples.
They enslaved Africans.
They used and abused immigrants.
The list of injustices goes ever on....
God, we confess to actively and passively maintaining a system that sins.
It denies healthcare to the needy,
Incarcerates at a profit,
Unjustly shoots precious lives...
When any of Your children suffer, our souls suffer too.
We confess that we fear the cost of following You, O God:
If we stand up for justice,
Our reputation may suffer.
If we stop ignoring cries of injustice,
We will lose the illusion of innocence.
Ending our sin of ‘no action’ means we have to get to work.
To ‘take up our cross’ is painful.
And so, God of Justice, we come to You.
Reveal to us our blind spots.
Surface our unconscious preferences.
Give us the courage to withstand honest self-examination.
Give us the strength to fight for change that relieves suffering and provides fairness.
Give us Your vision of the community You designed us to become.
This Lent, God of Mercy and Hope,
convict our hearts, stir our spirits, transform our minds.
May this transformation create a ripple that lasts beyond this season.
May it extend beyond our personal lives and into our communities.
May we be agents of Your liberating work in the world.
Amen.
(Articulated by Lauren Grubaugh)
For more on Repenting of Racism for Lent, click here.
For more on Repenting of Racism for Lent, click here.
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