Yesterday was my day to read the Psalm reading at church, and to offer the prayer that follows. I read Psalm 11 in its entirety, but the section I personally held onto was Verse 4 and Verse 5:
The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne.He observes everyone on earth; his eyes examine them. The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion.”
After beginning my prayer for the people we know who are sick, and for our missionaries, I prayed for the people who are victims of violence…of interpersonal violence, of state-sanctioned violence, and those trying to survive policy violence.
For a state that prides on southern hospitality, we are anything but. For a city (Nashville) that used to pride itself on being the buckle of the Bible belt…no we aren’t.
I grieve the lives that are lost to violence perpetrated by one person onto another. I really and truly do. But I don’t believe capital punishment is the answer, not spiritually, and not from a standpoint of efficacy either. And I live in a state that has seen its rates of poverty increase at the same time public support and sentiment for assistance is decreasing. We also have a felony camping law in a place where basic needs cost more than poverty thresholds.
I ended my prayer yesterday with a plea that we would become better seekers of peace, in a world that seems content with violence. I have some thoughts on how we could be a part of this work, and ultimately I know it begins with the individual actions I make, which is all I can really control right now.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
And I also believe and take to heart the African proverb “When you pray, move your feet”.
About policy violence, we pray with our feet through voting, through campaigning and advocacy, and through building networks of mutual aid. That’s the kind of work I want to spend more time doing in coming years.
Teaching (toward) the Beloved Community 