Would you take a moment and join me in prayer?

Gracious and Loving God,

We come together this Pentecost to remember the beginning of the church, when your Holy Spirit brought a fresh wind and fresh fire to the disciples who had gathered in anticipation. We, too, gather with that same anticipation. But we also gather to mourn and lament.

We mourn the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. We stand with their families and cry out for justice. We grieve for the families of the young man who was shot in Detroit during a protest, and the Federal Protective Service officer who was killed in an Oakland riot. We pray for healing for the people who have been injured in the violent protests.

Today our hearts are burdened, our minds are searching, and our spirits are processing a mix of disbelief, anger and sadness. Our cities are burning. Our children are suffering. Homes, businesses, and institutions are being looted and destroyed. We are in shock.

We need a second Pentecost.

We pray for your hedge of protection to surround all our peace keepers and those who stand in harm’s way to protect the citizenry. We pray that our leaders would denounce all forms of racism, violence, oppression, and discrimination. Father, send us your Holy Spirit again and bring a message of unity, so that we might speak and understand each other’s language, just as you did on that first Pentecost. Teach us your truth—-that there is no Greek nor Jew, no slave nor free, no male nor female, but ALL are ONE in Christ Jesus.

Father, we need a second Pentecost.

In our brokenness, hear our confession:

*We confess that we have failed to love you, and love your people, with our whole heart. We have not done your will, we have broken your law,
we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors,
and we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Hear our lamentation and forgive us, we pray. (*Adapted from the United Methodist Communion liturgy)

We need a second Pentecost.

**Lord, make us instruments of your peace:
where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that we don’t seek
to be consoled, as much as we seek to console,
to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. AMEN. (**Adapted from a prayer by St. Francis of Assisi)