Prayer for Equality and Justice

This past Wednesday I attended the 7^th annual conference of the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty.  The theme of the conference was “Growing an Economy for All Rhode Islanders.”  A featured speaker and small group discussions focused on several issues including race, poverty and mass incarceration; health care and health insurance; legislation; and organizing faith communities to action.

The speaker was the Rev. Dr. Sekinah Hamlin, an energetic Baptist minister who is the Director of the Ecumenical Poverty Initiative in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Hamlin spoke passionately about the anger and hopelessness of people who are trapped so they cannot see another reality apart from their own experience of exploitation and racism.

Her message was that an economy for all must include all at the table in order to tackle disproportionate outcomes.  People who are trapped need to tell their personal stories so others who talk about equality can listen and understand what it means to struggle when there is no opportunity for economic equality.

There are many people who come to All Saints’ Church during the week to ask for help because they are trapped by the systems that are designed to help.  Help is either not available or it is delayed because there is a waiting period.  One example of this happened the next day.  A woman stopped in the church office who has three young children ages 2, 4, and 6 living in a small room at Crossroads.  She is waiting for the Crossroads Family Center to open a place for her, and she is waiting for the State to give her food stamps for which she is not eligible until the first of June.  She brings her children to the City Meal Site on Tuesdays; I gave her a gift card to buy some additional food at Stop and Shop.  Her story is typical of a number of people in our state who are struggling because of hunger, lack of housing, and unemployment.

In her talk Dr. Hamlin referred to Langston Hughes, writer and poet who talked about dreams left behind.  Listen to his poem titled Dreams:

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

It is incredibly sad that so many people are trapped in our otherwise abundant society so that their dreams are either left behind, non existent, or frozen in snow.  Life for them is a barren field.

Today’s gospel is about Jesus spending time in prayer, prayer that all people may be one, that there may be justice, equality and peace in the world.  His prayer as recorded in John’s gospel is one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament.  Among other things, Jesus prayed that his disciples would be set apart in the service of truth, and they must see themselves sent into the world.  Because of their relationship to God, the disciples shared Jesus' mission.  Jesus prayed to God, "I protected the disciples in your name,....I guarded them,...so that the scripture might be fulfilled.  But now I am coming to you; and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves…. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world."

It is evident from Jesus' prayer that we are meant to continue to live in the world.  We are meant to be right where we are with all the uncertainty, tension, and conflict that exists in the world.  Jesus is aware that life is not always easy.  We are often at odds with the powers that rule the present order and we are easily dismissed as irrelevant because of what we believe.  However, the challenge is clear:  to continue the work of reconciliation in a world that is hostile to that mission. 

Jesus prayed to God, “I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. … They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."

When we gather each week for worship we come together to pray and to listen to God’s Word of truth in scripture and in the life of Jesus.  We offer songs of praise and thanksgiving, and then we set a table that invites and includes all people regardless of the circumstances of their lives.  It is the Lord’s Table.  We gather at this table to share the meal of Christ’s Body and Blood in our celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  It is the service of thanksgiving for the gifts, however large or small, we receive from God’s abundance.

Let us continue to live in that truth, to invite others to join us at the Lord’s table, and continue to pray for equality and justice for everyone.  Amen.