Gracious God, how can we talk so much about love when we refuse to love? How can we claim to follow you when we deliberately see stereotypes instead of human beings, practice discrimination, wage wars, and subject innocent people to fear and pain? You know how human we are because you shared our humanness. Help us use our humanness to honor life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Prayer adapted from “Are You Running With Me Jesus?” by the Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles; photo: Children at a food distribution site in Gaza)