Wednesday, April 24, 2002

For National Day of Prayer, here's one

By JOHN HATCHER

The Rev. Doctor Lloyd John Ogilvie, Chaplain of the United States Senate, has prepared a prayer to be read (and hopefully prayed) at 12 noon, May 2, as part of the events surrounding the National Day of Prayer. Fayette folks will be observing the day with three primary events:

Grace Evangelical Church annually and graciously hosts the Countywide Prayer Breakfast at 8 a.m. every year. A genuine attempt is made by Pastor Bruce Hebel and his leadership to bring political, civic, and elected leaders together for prayer. Difficult thing to do, but they do it very effectively. Anyone can come, but they prefer reservations (770-487-0791).

But the young people do one better on the adults by arising extra early for a 7 a.m. Youth Prayer Rally at the fountain in downtown Fayetteville. At times, more than 200 to 300 youth have gathered for this event and, yes, they really pray. Actually makes one feel good about the future of our land.

The day is topped off with a Countywide Prayer Gathering on the lawn of the Fayetteville First Baptist Church, right near the old county courthouse. It starts at 6:30 a.m. and concludes at 8 p.m. You are invited to bring your lawn chairs and even a picnic supper while joining your neighbors in directed prayer for the nation.

Now, back to the prayer prepared by the Senate Chaplain; here it is:

"Gracious God, all that we have and are is a result of your amazing generosity. Since Sept. 11, in the battle against terrorism, we have discovered again that you truly are our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. We rededicate ourselves to be one nation under you. In you we trust. We reaffirm our accountability to you, to the absolutes of Your commandments, and to justice in our society. Bless our President, Congress, and all our leaders with supernatural power. We commit ourselves to be faithful to you as Sovereign of our land and as our personal Lord and Savior. Amen."

Allow me to pull one of the prayer's powerful petitions and bring it home. "We rededicate ourselves to be one nation under you." That phrase, "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance by Act of Congress in 1954. How else could we be one nation but under God? We certainly could not be one people ethnically, culturally, racially or religiously. But there was that hope that we could be that One Nation, One People under God.

Then, the fulfillment of that phrase began to play out in American life with the May 17, 1954, unanimous Supreme Court Decision, Brown v. Board of Education, thereby beginning the process of "oneness" in the public school systems across the land.

Yet, with such diversity within our shores, how can we be one people? How can people who prefer caviar to collards be one people? How can people who pray at the Mosque and give prominence to Allah be one people with people who go to a Baptist country church and tack signs up across the country that say, "Jesus Saves"?

Well, since I don't look at it from the stance as one whom favors caviar nor as one who prays at a mosque, I must examine what my God has to say about being "one." The God that my mother introduced to me, through His Word and His Prophet Son, Jesus Christ, teaches me that he insists special favor must be accorded to the widows and the orphans. In fact, James, the apparent leader of the church in Jerusalem after the Ascension of Christ, said, "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight our God and Father is this: visit orphans, and widows in their distress, and to keep one unstained by the world" (James 1:27). In other words, God's people are to give special consideration to the powerless ones in society.

Then, in order to act in the spirit of oneness, I am instructed from Exodus 22:21 which states, "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

The prayer for "oneness" can be answered by everyone who reaches out to develop meaningful relationships with people who are different. Maybe they are powerless, like widows and orphans. Good! Reach out to them and begin to form relationships.

Maybe they are strangers and have strange and different customs and preferences. Good! Reach out and begin to discover the rich diversity right at your front door.

To us in the Christian faith, we see Muslims as "strangers." Great! Invite them into your home and love them by listening to them. My theology holds that because of the covenant God made with Noah and his descendants, all peoples of the earth are "under God." Therefore, we can be "one nation under God."

So, as we gather for prayers on the National Day of Prayer, let's not just ask God to bless America. That's pretty evident if you watch television and see the fare around the rest of the world. Maybe we need to start praying prayers of repentance for our indifference to social justice, for our insensitivity to the "stranger" minority, and for our failure to use our wealth to spread our blessings around the world (Did you know that Americans spend more money on dog and cat food than we spend on world missions?).

Let our prayers on the National Day of Prayer break from the "bless me and my four and no more" mentality to the spirituality of repentance of how we have treated our powerless fellow humans and the strangers among us.

[John Hatcher is pastor of River's Edge Community Church in Fayetteville and a regular columnist in The Citizen.]

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