A Prayer in Time of War--A Prayer for Nine-eleven

A Prayer of Remembrance and Mourning

by Brandon L. Fredenburg
September 14, 2001



O God, Who created all persons in your image, to you we pray on this day when the United States of America pauses to remember and mourn.

Help us, O God, to remember to pray for our enemies as Jesus commanded.

Help us, O God, to remember to bless our enemies as Jesus commanded.

Help us, O God, to remember that our enemies are those for whom Jesus died.

Help us, O God, to remember to be merciful upon the just (whomever they are) and the unjust (whomever we are), just as You are.

Help us, O God, to remember that we, as your Church, are called to wage supernaturally-enabled peace, compassion, and love as our warfare.

Help us, O God, to remember that the forces of naked wickedness and evil are arrayed against all creation, not merely the nation we live in and those our nation endorses.

Help us, O God, to mourn the dead, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn the loss of innocence, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn pride, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn hatred, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn cruelty, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn revenge, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn the evils of rulers, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn nation-state idols, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn attachments to all things less than You, both theirs and ours.

Enable your Church, O God, to be a constant witness with integrity against sin, idolatry, and bloodshed, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to look at all persons, both them and us, through eyes blood-red -- not with rage and anger, but sorrow and tears.

In the name of Him who said, at the most atrocious act in all of cosmic history, "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing."

Amen.

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Brandon Fredenburg is Assistant Dean and Associate Professor of Bible in the College of Biblical Studies and Behavioral Sciences at Lubbock Christian University. (He is also my friend of long standing. ML)