They
have been over there for a long time now. Some have been there
since before the bombing of Baghdad, enduring through the changes
in the war that have unfolded since its this'll-only-take-a-minute
beginning.
This
is about the time that people turn away from a war. At first,
yellow ribbons are everywhere, and flags, and signs in peoples'
windows that say "We Support Our Troops." But the new
American attention span is brief, in the best of times: we lose
interest quickly. The news from Iraq is never good news—good
news doesn't sell many newspapers. And so, since we don't like
to hear bad news about something from which there seems no ready
release, we begin to ignore the war altogether. And with it,
the young people we have sent to fight it.
Meanwhile,
peoples' tours are extended and people come home wounded. Some
come home dead. Other people go over to replace them. Our web
guy gets the names of people who have died off the Internet once
a week, my friend Jim says, and we pray for them every Sunday.
This is wonderful. It is also unusual. Probably none of the soldiers
for whom the people of [The Episcopal Church Of The] Heavenly
Rest pray are members of Heavenly Rest. But they are all children
of God.
There
is another prayer of which we are equally in need, a prayer that
many of us, perhaps, have yet to begin. In
any war, we need to pray for our adversary. We need to pray for
those who hate us. One day, we will live together as friends. We need to begin seeing
the enemy as a human being now, before that day comes, because
it will never come if we cannot.
Sometimes
people who oppose a war feel uncomfortable praying for those
involved in it, as if the act of praying for nineteen-year-old
soldiers far away from home carried with it an implied endorsement
of the hostilities that brought them there. It does not. We all
have the right to our opinions about this or any war, and we
have the great blessing of living in a society in which we can
express them freely. But those opinions do not in any way excuse
us from the obligation we have to reach out in love to people
who need love.
As
a matter of fact, it's probably more important for those who
oppose the war to pray for service men and women than it is for
other people. It is in precisely the place where we are torn
that God shows up first. God enters our ambiguities before He
enters our certainties. God explores with us, measures our doubts
with us, wonders aloud with us in conversation and prayer with
others who also wonder.
Those
of us who are not over there are privileged. We can adjust the
heat in our houses, we travel safe roads, we never ask ourselves
if the stranger we just passed on the street might turn around
and kill us. If we are worried in the night, we tap our spouses
gently on the shoulder and they wake up and tell us to go back
to sleep. We see our children every day.
We
can afford a few minutes to remember before God those for whom
these things are the stuff of dreams.
+Barbara
Crafton
Copyright ©2004 Barbara Crafton
From
The Almost-Daily eMo from the Geranium Farm, e-mail messages
sent by Episcopal priest and writer Barbara Crafton. Crafton's
eMo's are published in book form by Church Publishing. Visit
her Web site at http://www.geraniumfarm.org.
Prayer
for those in Military Service
God our Stronghold and Shield: Watch over those dear to us serving in this time
of war. Go before them to make their path safe, Shelter them by night and by
day. Lift them up when they grow weary. Fortify their hearts when they are afraid.
Defend them through the storm in the assurance of your presence and mercy, and
keep them in the companionship of Jesus, through whom we pray. Amen.
(From the website Episcopal
Church's Suffragan for Chaplancies)
Prayer for the Whole Human Family
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son:
Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and
hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite
us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish
your purposes here on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races
may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen
(From the Book of Common Prayer for the U.S. Episcopal
Church, Copyright 1979)
|
