Use the schema explained above: Tell God about the situation, listen to God and scripture, dialogue with God as you reflect.
Step 1
Jesus, you were the ultimate victim of scapegoating. According to the High Priest, one person must die for the sake of the nation. He was unknowingly being prophetic because you, one, Holy, Guiltless, Sinless loving person died for the sake of all of us. I know that the Father was not “out for blood” from His son to make up for sinful people. But in taking on everything about being human like us, including scapegoating you killed the eternal effects of scapegoating . You did not seek to die, but accepted it as part of being human and making death mute and no longer final. You replaced all the animal sacrifices of the past by loving us even unto death. How can we ever be grateful enough. By being so human in every aspect – even dying you have made us all Sisters and Brothers. You call us friends. How can we ever measure up to being your friends? But you are not worried about that and I guess neither should we. You prayed for us at the Last Supper, you Rose from the Dead and Ascended into Heaven so that You are always with us especially when two or three are gathered in your name, whether Jew or Greek, Slave or Free, Man or Woman – the exact opposite of scapegoating. We are all different but rather than exclude, we include.
Help us, Jesus, to be inclusive as you were inclusive. Take away our judgementalism. Make us not scapegoaters but rather enablers of others to be the people you made them to be whether they are like us or not like us. Please take away our fear of people who are different from us. It is our fear that drives our scapegoating. May we live up to your final discourse where you prayed that we all might be one, just as You and the Father are one.
Step 2
Read and meditate on these two scriptures:
| John 17
The Prayer of Jesus. 1When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven* and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, 2 just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. 3 Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. 4 I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. 5Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. 6“I revealed your name* to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, 8because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours,e 10and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them 11And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. 12When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. 14I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. 15* I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. 17Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. 19And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. 20“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. 22And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. 24Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am* they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. 26I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”
|
Philippians 2
Plea for Unity and Humility. 1 If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. 3 Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, 4 each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others. 5Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,* 6Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. 7 Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, 8he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 9Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
|
Find the Father, Son and Spirit present to you – right now where you are. Speak to them as your Friend, Advocate, Lover. Tell them what you are thinking and feeling. Use your own words or no words at all, just know that They are with you, and they are listening to you. What are you hearing? Their message comes in the form of your thoughts, your feelings, your longings, your desires. Ask them for anything you need.