Advent Prayer for December 13

Christmas Prayer

W.E.B. DuBois (1910)

 

O Thou Incarnate Word of God to man,

make us this Christmas night to realize Thy truth:

we are not Christian because we possess Thy name and celebrate the ceremonies and idly reiterate the prayers of the church,

but only in so far as we really comprehend and follow the Christ spirit-

we must be poor and not rich,

meek and not proud,

merciful and not oppressors,

peaceful and not warlike or quarrelsome.

For the sake of the righteousness of our cause we must bow to persecution and reviling, and again and again turn the stricken cheek to the striker,

and above all the cause of our neighbor must be dearer to us,

dearer than our own cause.

This is Christianity. God help us all to be Christians. Amen

 

            W.E.B. DuBois was active in civil rights work in the first half of the twentieth century, and in that light, his prayer speaks to the life that we are called to live as followers of Jesus.  His thoughts foreshadow the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others, as they urged the spirit of non-violence upon those intent on pursuing societal change.

            These are all scriptural images – that of poverty, of meekness, of mercy and of peace.  We know that we are called to bow to persecution, and to turn the stricken cheek, but this is not an easy road.  To be abused, to suffer, to sacrifice – those are not twenty-first century norms. 

            Yet DuBois gives us hope:  “God help us all to be Christians.”  Christianity is not a lifestyle or a pattern of behaviors that we achieve through pure willpower or effort.  It is the Christ spirit in us.  We are no longer our own.  We are his.

 

Prayer Focus:  a surrendered spirit