Last evening my husband and I went to church. The Parish Priest asked, “Does anyone feel called to read the Scriptures?” Inside I smiled – I have always felt called to read the Scriptures, from the time I was in Sunday School I can remember waiting until I was ‘old’ enough to be able to read them during our class. Finally, when I was old enough to read them in class my teacher told me that if I wanted to do a good job of reading them I had to ‘prepare’ myself for reading them. She gave me a printed copy of the verses I would be reading out loud and told me to practice them. Then she said I shouldn’t just read them, I should listen to them while I read them. Listen while you read. It’s so easy for us to read out loud without listening, isn’t it? It’s that way with our conversations as well – we talk without listening to ourselves or the people we are talking with. Minds are so filled and occupied with so many different thoughts. I don’t know how to explain what happens when I’m reading Scriptures out loud other than to say that even though I look at the people who are listening, I don’t really see them because I’m spending more time listening to what the Lord is speaking to me about. Before I start reading I always say ‘Lord, open my ears as well as the members of the congregation – that we might all hear from you according to our needs and your desire.” AMEN.”

What does this have to do with praying for justice and peace?

Probably more than I had ever thought before last night’s service. You see, in this world, there are so many causes that we cry out about and try to bring to the attention of other people. We want our own personal cause to become the attention of everyone else as well. And yet, while we are all created by the same God who gives us life, we are also all given unique gifts and skills and talents to be used for God’s good purposes. Unless someone has taught us to use these gifts, skills and talents for God’s good purpose, we use them for our own purposes. We use them selfishly rather than selflessly and in doing so we cause more division and harm than we care to confess or admit.

In the church I attend we use The Book of Common Prayer and follow a form of Liturgy which includes readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms and the New Testament. These “Lessons” are read from members of the congregation. Some churches have 1 reader, some have 3 while some have 2 readers and someone who sings the Psalm. Following the Lessons the Gospel is read by an ordained clergy person (either a Deacon or Priest). In a Liturgy course that I took I was told to pray, look and listen for the common thread in the lessons which is bound up in the gospel message and to prepare a sermon, or a short (no more than 10 – 12 minute) talk about the issue or issues that are presented. Since everyone is listening differently not everyone will receive the same message but a message that speaks to individual hearts will be effective. It was always interesting to hear comments from people about how my ‘talk’ touched their hearts and minds. Most people felt called to do something about what they heard that day. Sometimes I was surprised by what they felt called to do because of a talk I had prepared and delivered. That God could use a simple woman like me, who felt both called and yet so inadequate at the same time just proved to me that God is all knowing and all powerful, using the foolish to teach the wise.

Again – what does this have to do with praying for justice and peace?

More than I had ever thought before last night’s service.

You see last night – after being called upon to read the lessons, I asked if anyone else felt called to read. One woman said yes and when I asked her which reading she would prefer the Priest told her to read the New Testament reading. Neither of us prepared in advance to read the lessons or the psalm – I prayed the prayer I always prayed and the first reading I read was Proverbs 31:10-31 and it was all about being a good wife (and although I’ve been a wife to the same man for 37 years I have always felt inadequate in comparison to other wives in other couples relationships.) The Psalm was Psalm 1 and as I introduced the reading I said, “We will pray it together in unison, in unison, all together as one beginning and ending with the refrain.” The Psalm is about those who are happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked and who don’t sit in the seat of scoffers and about the ones who are happy are those who meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. As I listened to all of us read the Psalm together in unison, I thought about how much quieter and better this world would be if there were more people meditating on the law of the Lord, and how so many people make his law more complicated than they need to and how that is why there are so many people crying out in the streets about their personal causes instead of asking people to pay more attention to God and his law – his command for us to Love one another. (That’s what I heard while we all read the Psalm together as One out loud.)

Then I listened to the New Testament Reading (read by a woman who had told me in the past about how inadequate she felt to read in church – I had asked her to be a reader in the past and she always said she could never do that – so it was wonderful to hear her volunteer and read last night!) What stood out the most to me in listening to her read from James 3 were verses 17 and 18 which speak about pure wisdom coming from above and being pure, gentle and peaceable, willing to yield and full of mercy. And while I want to be this way all the time – I know that sometimes I am more like the loud voice calling out in the streets. One of my children recently said that there is no mercy with me – (I, of course, thoroughly disagreed with that comment and at the same time recognize that I feel she is lacking in mercy toward me. But I do need to consider what she is saying because maybe in some issues of family life and beyond I have perhaps been a little hard-hearted. Perhaps I have distanced myself been and unmerciful in an effort to protect myself from being hurt again. During this time of distance from other people I have been pressing closer to God in prayer and listening to his speak to me through Scripture and Spiritual Attentiveness. I realized last night that I had been protecting my heart and mind from receiving more pain than I can bear. This is because of a deep wound I received from words thrown at me from people who judged me harshly without even knowing anything about me or my life personally and by some who know only a small about my life and who didn’t care to know the full truths about my life. And so – I have been praying for justice and peace in my family relationships and relationships with other people in the church and the world. Relationships are difficult because everyone seems to judge other people so quickly and harshly, wanting their own way and trying to force it on other people instead of allowing God to draw us together in love.

I know I’m not alone in these kind of family struggles. In the past I’ve had clergy come to me and ask to pray for their family members and relationships because of division caused by rejection. I have seen their families healed and so I trust the Lord will do the same for mine all in God’s good timing and in God’s way – not mine or theirs – but in God’s way because His way is the only way that will bring true peace and put an end to competition and division.

In the Prayers of the People the prayer that stood out to me was the one where the people respond with “Pray for Justice and Peace.” It’s found on page 386 in The Book of Common Prayer: “I ask your prayers for peace; for goodwill among nations; and for the well-being of all people. Pray for justice and peace.”