A prayer from John Bell …
May it not be long, Lord.
May it not be long
before there are no more beggars at the door
waiting for crumbs from the tables of the rich.
May it not be long
before northern exploitation
of the southern economies
is a fact of history,
not a fact of life.
May it not be long
before poor economies
cease to be havens for sex tourism,
child labor and experimental genetic farming.
May it not be long
before those nations we once evangelized
show us the larger Christ
whom we, too often, have forgotten.
May it not be long
before the governments of our nations
legislate against commercial avarice
and over-consumption which hurts the poor
and indebts them.
May it not be long
before Christians in this land
examine their economic priorities
in the light of the Gospel,
rather than in its shadow.
May it not be long
before we respond out of love,
not out of guilt.
May it not be long
before we find wells of hope
deeper than the shallow pools of optimism
in which we sometimes paddle.
May it not be long
before we feel as liberated and addressed
by your word
as those first folk did
who heard you summon the oddest of people
to fulfill the oddest of callings.
May it not be long, Lord.
Amen.
(From This Is the Day: Readings and Meditations from the Iona Community, edited by Neil Paynter, ©2002, Wild Goose Publications, Fourth Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3DH, UK)