100
days of Prayer
Day 100
The
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s next 2 R’s of Reconciliation.
The Archbishop of
Canterbury’s Six Rs of Reconciliation.
RELIEF
Suppose a brother or
a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in
peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs,
what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by
action, is dead. James
2:15-17
I remember walking around Nembe, in the
Niger Delta, with a warlord who was deciding whether or not to keep me captive.
I looked up and saw an oil company production facility about three miles away
with enough electric power to supply most of that region, with helicopters
coming in and out, fresh water, food, and a doctor. Then I looked back at the
warlord’s town where there was sewage running down the street and children
playing in it. And I thought: ‘If I had grown up here, I would be like this
man,’ because it was a mixture of horror and cruelty and inequality. What the
people in that town needed most was water, electricity and hope. Relief is
essential in the process of reconciliation.
Jesus, when he came, brought hope, life
and healing. And he did not leave us to work alone: he created the Church, so
that through partnerships, systems and imagination, we might be able to offer
relief and hope for the long-term, not just today.
RISK
In your relationships
with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very
nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own
advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians
2:5-7
The risk of the incarnation was huge. If
we take seriously the humanity of Christ, we take seriously his vulnerability:
the vulnerability of a baby, the vulnerability of a man on a cross. Jesus
himself took the risk of crucifixion and we know from Gethsemane the cost, pain
and fear of that.
There is an obvious risk in
reconciliation: you can easily get caught up in fighting. But that’s not the
primary risk. The primary risk is failure. Reconciliation always involves
bringing people together and when that goes wrong the outcome is often worse
than before you tried. But behind that risk is the hope of something great – of
restored relationships and the flourishing of whole societies. After all, it is
through the risk of the incarnation that we see the glory of the resurrection.
Prayer
Let
us remember those who have died for their country in war; those we knew, and
all who have given their lives for freedom, justice and the hope of peace. As
we look forward and seek the way of peace and reconciliation, you might like to
say this prayer: Lord, strengthen our hearts, hands, and minds, to work
together for peace; to see you in one another, and to seek your kingdom above
all things; that your will may be seen to be done, and your Kingdom come,
through Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords and King of kings. Amen.
[The
Liturgical Commission of the Church of England 2018, © The Archbishops’
Council]
Please
pray and share with your intercessors, Bible Study Groups, Prayer Groups,
Church Prayers, Men & Women’s Groups. Thank you.
Las & Arlene Ratnayake
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