“To the home of peace
To the field of love
To the land where forgiveness
and right relationship meet,
We look, O God, with longing
for Earth’s children known.
With compassion for the creatures
With hearts breaking for the nations
and the people we love.
Open us to the visions
we have never known.
Strengthen us for self-givings
we have never made.
Delight us with a oneness
we could never have imagined.
That we may truly be born of you,
Makers of peace.”
~J. Philip Newell

Yesterday, on the first Sunday of Lent, we handed this prayer out to our community. The hope was that, this week,  we would all take a moment midway through our day, perhaps over lunch, and offer this prayer. The thought was that we would then be engaged in prayer, even a unified prayer, that would bind us together on the six other days a week when we are not together in worship. The prayer was written on a card small enough to travel with us where ever we might go this week, where ever we might open a lunch bag or sip a cup of coffee.  Who could have known that these words, chosen weeks ago to be printed, would have fit so perfectly for the prayers we are carrying with us?

As we have watched the unfolding events in Japan and speculate still about what will happen, certainly our hearts are breaking. The devastation and turmoil seems unimaginable. And yet these dear people whose lives have been changed forever are picking through the rubble looking for fragments of their past in order to pave a future. The rebuilding will require compassionate hearts, vigilant patience and ‘visions we have never known.’ Strengthen them, O God. Strengthen us, to continue our praying and self-givings in any way we can.

These are the times that remind us, because we forget so easily, that we are intricately woven together in this beautiful and unpredictable Earth. We are full of knowledge about how the Universe works but it is always only in part. We can understand the seasons and the geological construction of the Earth but we have no control over its workings. We can plan for disasters that never come or we can experience disasters we never planned for. This is life. Sometimes we cavalierly say that a certain event ‘changed my world.’ The truth is that the earthquake in Japan actually changed the rotation of the Earth’s axis and moved the landmass of Japan by as much as 13 feet. This change in the rotation will result in a shorter day for all of us. If we needed any affirmation that we travel as guests on this amazing planet, that does it for me.

And so at the end of the day, we are left with our fragile, beautiful lives that are held in a loving uncertainty. In many ways, this is the message of Lent we proclaimed on Ash Wednesday. We are also left with our prayers, those passionate messages we send toward one another and the Holy. And we are also left holding those deep silences we rest in as we listen for a reminder that we are woven in a complicated and exquisite pattern called living. This is the ‘oneness’ that can delight and can give us courage to continue on seeking to be Makers of peace for the healing of the world.