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At church this morning, I appreciated the Prayer of Remembrance, which concerned 9/11:
“Remember, O God, those who suffer the loss of loved ones…
“Remember all who have died in the conflict with terrorism…
“Remember those who are still filled with fear or anger…
“Remember this nation and those we call enemies…
“Stir your church to declare your peace where there is hatred…
“Hold all in your love and justice…
“Cover us with your compassion, and refashion us in your image.
“This we pray through Christ, our only hope.”
This wasn’t exactly a nationalistic sort of prayer. It sounds rather liberal mainline Protestant in its emphasis on peace, love, and recognizing the humanity even of our enemies. Yet, the service itself was far from political. The pastor spoke primarily about recovering from the tragedy one day at a time through a relationship with Christ—drawing closer to Christ and following his path of love. And there was a Marine at the service who just returned from Afghanistan. I think that the focus of the service was where it was supposed to be: on praying for those who lost family and friends in the tragedy. There will be a 9/11 service at my church tonight, and I will go to it. If there’s anything in it that stands out to me, I’ll blog about it.
