A Prayer for Today’s Election

“Therefore, since we are surrounded so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside everything that hinders..and let us run with perseverance the race set before us…”  Hebrews 12:1

On this Election Day, fear and anxiety bests us at every turn.   Threats of violence, voter suppression and yet more chaos looms.    Intimidation abounds and many fear to go to the polls.   Should democracy perish, what will become of us?

Yet lest we forget, we are not alone in this struggle.    Those who have gone on before us are now a cloud of witnesses.   No longer can they be silenced or oppressed, beaten or incarcerated.  Instead, having labored for justice and emancipation, fair voting rights and equal protection under the law, a living wage and affordable health care – they stand alongside us.    Cheering us on!  Encouraging us onward.    No strangers to intimidation or trepidation,  they call out, “Be not afraid.”

So come and stand alongside us, you audacious cloud of faithful witnesses.   Come, Sojourner Truth and Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.  Come, Medgar Evans and Howard Thurman, John Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr.   Come, so we may draw upon your courage and conviction.  Come, so that together we may work towards the emancipation of this generation, and those that are to come.  

Amen.

Author: Jessica McArdle

These are dark and corrosive times. As a writer and ordained minister with the United Church of Christ, I use prayer, poetry, reflection, and scripture to re-align our embattled spirits with the uniqueness and urgency of our God-given identity and call. View all posts by Jessica McArdle