Father of glory,
We, Your sons and daughters come before You in humility and trembling, pursuing Your grace in confident boldness.

We, Your Church, have sinned against You, against our sisters and brothers, and against our neighbors. We ask that You cut through what is false and untrue and insufficient and quicken us to our core, that we may present to You a holy offering; our whole selves in service to Your purposes in our world and nation. Break apart our group-speak. Rend our selfish defenses. Cause us to stand before You in naked honesty, and purity of heart as we confess our racial sins to You.

Father, we’ve lacked empathy to the long, deep wounds that our black and native neighbors and sisters and brothers in Christ bear in themselves and their families.  Remove the rags of our self-justification and clothe us with Your garments of gentleness, tenderness, compassion and the ability to listen to their painful stories. Give us grace to not weigh-in and judge while they’re pouring out their trauma. Kindle us with Your 1 Corinthians 13 love.

Father, we have claimed the blessings of the rich heritage of our nation’s founding fathers, but cared little for the racial curse that they also inflicted upon succeeding generations. Forgive us for this great duplicity that has doubly wounded our sisters and brothers. We repent of this selfishness. Help our love to be without hypocrisy, Father.

Father, we confess that too often the Church has been a great source of our neighbors’ wounding, rather than a great source of their healing. When racial charges are made, we too often respond with generalization, accusation and hostility – even before we know the facts of the episode.  Forgive us for our defensive ways, Father. Grant us a meekness to bear long with the ongoing cries of our native and black neighbors. Give us ears to hear what You’re saying about the injustices they’ve endured, and hearts to understand how it impacts their daily lives.

Father, we especially thank You for our POC sisters and brothers in Christ. Forgive us for the ways we, our denominations and our forefathers alienated them from the commonwealth of the household of God; and all the ways where they were forced to form their own fellowships in order to enjoy fellowship with You. What great sin against You, Father and the love You have for Your whole family! Our family has been so full of pride; so filled with racial separatism; prejuduce and unrighteous zeal. We turn from these great evils so we may be aligned with Your righteous order.

Father, we ask the grace and wisdom of James 3.
We seek the Galatians 5 fruit of the Spirit-directed way.
We knock in pursuit of the Matthew 5 constitution of Jesus’ government in our hearts in all our relationships.

Forgive us, Father. We plead the blood of Your Son, Jesus over our many racial transgressions.

Give us grace to walk in humility with our sisters and brothers; washing Your feet as we wash theirs’. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit so we may be agents of healing and champions for Your purposes for their lives; their families and our united fellowship in Your presence.

Unite our hearts to fear Your holy Name, and Your Holy Family, Father.
For the sake of Your magnificent glory, we pray this in the Name of Your Son, Who makes us one.
Amen.

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JSB • February 2021