Daily Worship

Enemy

Katy Emslie-Smith December 18, 2015 0 0

Matthew 2:16-18

Matthew 2:16-18

When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

‘A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.’

Matthew 5:44-45

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
 

Herod: history has attached no  affection to his name.
In the tangle of his political puppetry,
Deceipt and pursuit of power,
Unleashing his anger in the slaughter of children.
A  region plunged into pain,
Raped of their legacy.

Lord,
Today we witness many Herods
Who,  in the depths of complexity,
In the name of different powers,
Kill and maim and torture and persecute.

This hardest thing you ask of us:
To love the enemy and pray for the persecutor.
Confounded, we do not know  how to pray.
Teach us how to pray.
Your kingdom come, your will be done.