O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the
world, have mercy upon us.
We who are victims of evil plead Your mercy. We who are
refugee, wracked with disease and dis-ease, sufferers of abuse by those who
should love us, impoverished by corruption and endemic injustice, abandoned and
alone: we cry O come Immanuel, stand with us, among us, and pour Your mercy.
O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the
world, have mercy upon us.
We the perpetrators, the bent and broken ones, plead
Your mercy.
The “us” that are American, for our self-centered abuse
of power that wreaks havoc on the world, for the way we have made personal
liberty and choice our God, for our failure of hospitality and generosity: we cry O come Immanuel, and save us from our sins.
The “us” that is the Church, for our internal warring,
our failure of compassion, our programs and plans and faddish passions that
have taken Your place in our hearts; for all the ways we have ignored Your Word
and have substituted our judgment of truth, mercy and righteousness for Yours: we cry O come Immanuel, and save us from our sins.
O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the
world, grant us Your peace.
O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the
world, have mercy upon me.
Upon me, Jeri, the victim of aging, abandonment, alcohol
abuse, anger, and of all who see me as simply useful to their own ends,
penetrate my heart with the reality of Your terrible willingness to submit to
all that human sinfulness could throw at You, to the truth that You, Immanuel,
have joined me here: I cry O come Immanuel, and pour Your mercy upon me.
O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the
world, have mercy upon me.
Upon me, Jeri, bound by self, numb in acedia, harborer
of chips on my shoulder, a woman whose mind rarely stops spinning long enough
to find You and join you, Immanuel, in prayer: for myself, the vow-breaker and repeat
offender: I cry O come Immanuel, and save me from my sin.
O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the
world, grant me Your peace.
Your mercy is ever with us. It is why we are still
here, why we, all of us, still live. Grant us constancy in our remembrance of
our need and Your compassion, for in that we will know Your peace.
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