Here’s a prayer
of confession and petition from John van de Laar’s Sacredise website.
The Tyranny of Vengeance
(inspired by passages like Matthew
5:38-48 and Luke 6:27-38)
Here we are
again, God
With all that
makes us who we are,
all that fills our lives;
Carrying into
this place of joy and freedom
the burdens we just can’t seem to lay
down,
The weight of
all the scores we long to have settled,
the justice we want to demand
for the wrongs we have suffered
Yet we also
know what would happen if you were to deal with us justly;
with our greeds and violences, our
betrayals and lusts.
If justice was
served in our lives we could not stand.
So forgive us
our wrongs, God,
forgive us as we do not deserve;
forgive us against the demands of
justice;
And forgive our
obsession that justice be done
to those who have wronged us.
May our worship
lead us to the place
where our hunger for grace and mercy may
be filled,
And where we
may be freed from the tyranny of vengeance.
Amen.
~ written by
John van de Laar, and posted on Sacredise.com http://sacredise.com/
