September 30, 2025 - A Prayer To & For Portland, Oregon after Reflecting on Bonhoeffer's Life Together: Chapter 2

This is written during a time of unrest, as the National Guard has been deployed in Portland, Oregon. Some cry for order, others for justice; some are fearful of protest, others fearful of power. Help us remember first: the day belongs to the Lord, not to the anxieties and disturbances encountered in the night.

We want to begin each day, not with the noise of the world but with God's Word. Help us gather ourselves each morning to pray the Psalms, sing hymns, and hear Scripture. In doing so, we will anchor ourselves in the truth that Christ, not the state, is our true Lord of history.

Remind us of our calling is to live together as a visible sign of God’s peace. Let our homes and churches be open to those who hunger, who need shelter, who tremble with fear. We won't ask first whether they are a protester or soldier, for Christ comes to us in the distress of our neighbor. In the table fellowship we share as citizens, the world will glimpse a justice not enforced by weapons but given in mercy.

The state has a duty: to preserve justice and protect the weak. Yet when the state arms itself against its own citizens, when it answers cries for equity with batons and rifles, then it exceeds its calling. Citizens and the church must speak. We do not honor God by silence in the face of injustice. We honor God in reminding rulers that their authority is bounded, that power without justice is no authority at all.

To the soldiers of the Guard and those crying for order, remain firm in your humanity before God, not merely acting as instruments of command. Examine your conscience. Where order violates the dignity of our neighbors, it also violates Christ's command. To follow an order violating that dignity is to betray both God and our own humanity. It is better to suffer the judgment of men than to lose our souls to violence.

I confess my deep fears and hatreds. I pray that any anger or bitterness does not poison the fellowship of this city we share. I pray to speak the truth in humility, to forgive as we are all forgiven, and that we may bear each other’s burdens. Hopefully, we will become strong enough to stand with the oppressed without hatred and to address the powerful without cowardice.

The church is not the church when it seeks its own safety. The church is the church when it exists for others. I want to go into the streets not with stones but with prayers, not with slogans of contempt but with songs of hope. Let's be willing to suffer with our neighbors, for in that suffering Christ himself is present.

The light of dawn will come again. May our life together bear witness to that dawn.