September 11, 2011

As we look forward to our week of remembering 9/11, I offer the following hymn of peace for your consideration today.

“…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore;
but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
and no one shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.” (Micah 4:3-4, ESV)

I can’t believe its coming on 10 years since that day. I think the real message in September 11 is that there is a lot of pain and anger in the world. This world really needs hope and love. This morning I finished reading Philip Yancey’s “Where is God When It Hurts?” and he had something in there that startled me. In India only 3% of the country is Christian, yet Christians in India are responsible for 18% of the health care. In India when you ask someone what they think of when they think of a Christian, they think of love, compassion and graceful health care to the poor. Wouldn’t it be great if it were like that in the United States?

God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred. Amen.

A Meditation~Prayer of a Mum

Jesus, good Shepherd, they are not mine but Yours, for I am not mine but Yours. I am Yours, Lord, and they are Yours, because by Your wisdom You have created both them and me, and by Your death You have redeemed us. So we are Yours, good Lord, we are Yours, whom You have made with such wisdom and bought so dearly. Then if You commend them to me, Lord, You do not therefore desert me or them. You commend them to me: I commend myself and them to You. Yours is the flock, Lord, and Yours is the shepherd. Be Shepherd of both Your flock and shepherd. You have made an ignorant mother, a blind leader, an erring ruler: teach the mother You have established, guide the leader You have appointed, govern the ruler You have approved. I beg You, teach me what I am to teach, lead me in the way that I am to lead, rule me so that I may rule others. Or rather, teach them, and me through them, lead them, and me with them, rule them, and me among them.

~Anselm (1033-1099), Archbishop of Canterbury