For those who take your name in vain, Lord Jesus Christ, we pray to God in that same holy name:
– for those who rule a land they call a Christian nation and yet shut out the refugees, persecute the sick and disabled, heap further burdens on the poor and oppressed, and deny justice to those whose humanity they fail to recognise: grant them integrity, wisdom, and compassion, and inspire them to lead their citizens in a country worthy of your name; and help us all to find and build the kingdom of heaven in the places that we call home.
– for those who use your cross to bully and intimidate, that they may be delivered from their own fear of the stranger and repent of their threats and violence. Grant healing and sanctuary to those they seek to frighten. Transform your cross once more into a sign of mercy and reconciliation; and show us the perfect love that casts out fear.
– for those who use your birth to sell a hollow fantasy to those who struggle to afford the necessities of life, that they may turn their talents to provision, not exploitation: grant them, and us, a spirit of generosity, to share the good things with which you have blessed us; save us from illusions of inadequacy and from envy of our neighbour; show us the love that cannot be bought or sold, and give us grace to rejoice unstintingly in the good news of the Saviour’s birth.
– for Churches that wield worldly power, sit in seats of government, and shriek of persecution when their shortcomings are pointed out; for Churches that twist your teaching to coerce and control, laying ever-heavier burdens on those who seek to follow him, setting stumbling blocks in the path of those that would follow the way of justice and peace, or stifling the voices of those whose trust in them has been broken: take them at their word, send your Spirit, open the scriptures, and let your kingdom come: let the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine unimpeded by the human impulse to restrict it to those deemed worthy by human standards.
– for ourselves, who call ourselves Christians, when we are tempted to treat our baptism and our creed as a sign of our own superiority, when we turn our faces away from you when we meet you in the hungry, the needy, the prisoner, when we fear to speak out in the face of injustice: Father, forgive us, and turn our hearts back to you; save us from complacency and the impulse to pass judgement on our neighbours; grant us humility and courage and show us how we encounter you in every human being, and transform us day by day into the likeness of Christ, in whose name we pray.
Amen
