The coronavirus has (re)exposed and exacerbated significant inequities in our country. The people among us who live on the socioeconomic margins are at greater risk than others in this time of crisis. Systems that privilege we who have wealth and access continue to do their work in prioritizing and protecting some over others. Today we offer “A PRAYER FOR…THE HOUSING INSECURE:” the beloved of God who walk the streets seeking a place to rest their heads; people living under the threat of eviction or foreclosure; college students who have lost access to dormitories and have nowhere else to go; and all who fret and lose sleep worrying about safe shelter and a place to call home.
Isaiah 58:6-7:
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
Let us pray:
God of liberation, yoke-breaker and justice-maker: hear our prayer this day for all among us who feel the stress and pain of housing insecurity. How does one “shelter-in-place” when there is no place to go or no secure shelter to trust? Where can people go when physical proximity causes hesitation and strangers are targets of suspicion? Undo the bonds of economic inequality that hold unjust systems together and shatter the yoke of oppression caused by the disproportional allocation of resources. Through your system-shattering word, strengthen those who are on the margins, provide security in these distressing times, support those on the frontlines combating housing disparities, and open the hearts of all us to your to tend to our siblings in need. This we pray, trusting in our eternal Home, Christ Jesus, the one breathing Easter deliverance onto all the world. Amen.
Rev. Justin Lind-Ayres, University Pastor