We all know the story: Moses ascends Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. He descends and finds, to his horror, that in his absence, the people have built a Golden Calf. Smashing the tablets in anger and disgust, he once again ascends God’s holy mountain.
Upon returning, Moses gently puts the second set of the Ten Commandments into the Ark of the Covenant.
Throughout their forty years of wandering, the Israelites see that Ark and those Tablets wherever they travelled.
The rabbis of old asked a question: What happened to the original, broken set of tablets? Were they discarded? Recycled? Abandoned?
One answer is that they were given an honored place inside the Ark next to the second pair that was whole.
Why?
So that the people could see them and realize that brokenness is as much a part of life as completeness.
Let us pray:
Dear God – help us to see and hear the brokenness around us:
• On the streets of our cities;
• In the rubble of Turkey and Syria in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake
• In the cries of children and parents who cannot care for them;
• In our parched landscape that thirsts for moisture;
• In the overcrowded schools where students thirst for knowledge;
• In the eyes of the innocents;
• In the lies of guilty
But let us not stop with mere perception – lest we build another Golden Calf of apathy and callousness. We pray that our seeing and hearing might spur us to action.
May the pristine surroundings of this beautiful chamber not blind us to the incompleteness that awaits us once we leave these hallowed halls.
On this day of deliberation, may these legislators be healers – bringing wholeness to the brokenness that propelled them to serve in the first place.
May we understand that we share in the pain of others – whether they be in Turkey, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela or Colorado – all of us are connected by a chain of humanity that both defines our weakness – when we refuse to see, and shows us our strength when we reach out in solidarity.
May this day be a day of hope, of wholeness and of collaboration. May all that is broken be healed – and may we heal ourselves as we try to heal others. Then shall we all be a blessing.
Amen
We all know the story: Moses ascends Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten
Commandments. He descends and finds, to
his horror, that in his absence, the people have built a Golden Calf. Smashing the tablets in anger and disgust, he
once again ascends God’s holy mountain.
Upon returning, Moses gently
puts the second set of the Ten Commandments into the Ark of the Covenant.
Throughout their forty years
of wandering, the Israelites see that Ark and those Tablets wherever
they travelled.
The rabbis of old asked a
question: What happened to the original,
broken set of tablets? Were they
discarded? Recycled? Abandoned?
One answer is that they were given
an honored place inside the Ark next to the second pair that was whole.
Why?
So that the people could see
them and realize that brokenness is as much a part of life as completeness.
Let us pray:
Dear God – help us to see and
hear the brokenness around us:
· On the streets of our cities;
· In the rubble of Turkey and Syria
in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake
· In the cries of children and
parents who cannot care for them;
· In our parched landscape that
thirsts for moisture;
· In the overcrowded schools where
students thirst for knowledge;
· In the eyes of the innocents;
· In the lies of guilty
But let us not stop with mere
perception – lest we build another Golden Calf of apathy and callousness. We pray that our seeing and hearing might
spur us to action.
May the pristine surroundings
of this beautiful chamber not blind us to the incompleteness that awaits us
once we leave these hallowed halls.
On this day of deliberation,
may these legislators be healers – bringing wholeness to the brokenness that
propelled them to serve in the first place.
May we understand that we
share in the pain of others – whether they be in Turkey, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela
or Colorado – all of us are connected by a chain of humanity that both defines
our weakness – when we refuse to see, and shows us our strength when we reach
out in solidarity.
May this day be a day of
hope, of wholeness and of collaboration.
May all that is broken be healed – and may we heal ourselves as we try
to heal others. Then shall we all be a blessing.
Amen
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