Citizens of God’s Reconciling Kingdom
Originally Published in the Diocese of West Texas Reflections Magazine I remember this summer when every week there was news of more killings. I felt overwhelmed, and felt sick and helpless. It also pushed me to remember to pray. Since I could not turn back time and somehow save the senseless killing, the ripping apart of God’s family, I invited people near to me to gather and pray for peace. Then I felt another weight: how are we to pray for peace? I was frozen not by the need for peace and the end of senseless killing, but by another ripping apart of God’s family. The political climate in which we live. There is certainly no peace there. Public discourse rips us apart on a different level. It seems like the ones who we are to turn to for governance are at such opposition, it led Kendrick Lamar to call them “Demo-Crips and Re-Blood-icans” referencing the gang like mentality. Would someone out there be offended if we pray for peace? What does peace mean? Then I realized, we are not o