A Prayer in the Wake of the Newtown Shooting

A Pastoral Prayer offered on Sunday, December 16, 2012, in the wake of the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, December 14. 

O God of Hope and Promise,

During this season of Advent, we remember that the world into which your son was born was not silent and peaceful, but muddled and messy.  That world was filled with tears and anguish, and a longing for redemption from the world’s brokenness.  It is that same kind of world – our world today – into which we yearn for your return.

We pray, O Lord, for the recent victims of violence, for so many young lives taken much too soon.  We grieve for the families whose mantles will have one fewer Christmas stocking and one fewer seat at the table.  We mourn with the families of survivors, whose children are now scarred by memories no child should have to endure.  We are pained by the images of a community too shell-shocked for words.  Grant to all who mourn an Advent of your peace, and a healing that only your Spirit can bring over time.

We confess to you that our world and our nation are brutally addicted to violence.  We acknowledge the statistics that are too jarring to ignore:  Seven mass shootings in one year, the highest one-year total in our country’s history.  Fifteen of the twenty six worst mass shootings over the past fifty years have happened on our very own soil.  Our media, movies, and video games glorify bloodshed.  We fall for the lie that justice must always involve the taking of a life.  There are too many guns in the hands of too many of the wrong people.  We are saturated by our own bloodlust, blinded by our own frailties.  So come to us, Lord, and set us free from our hearts turned inward upon themselves.

Here, in the town of Cherokee, we ask your blessing on our teachers and all of our public servants, who tend to the lives of our youngest generation, serve our community, and preserve our future. Grant to them wisdom and courage in their daily tasks, and an environment that is safe, peaceful, and conducive to sound learning.

God, inspire each of us to be agents of healing and transformation, even in the context of our own relationships.  Help us to support our schools, our law enforcement agencies, our emergency personnel, our health care providers, and all those who order our common good.  Guide us in reconciling any conflict that we have with other.  Teach us to love our children.  Grant to us a steadiness of will and a sobriety of mind to do your will in all that we do, so that we might see your kingdom here on earth, as it is in heaven.

In the face of tragedy, and during this season of preparation, focus our resolve, and help us to be agents of peace.

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.