Psalm 137Psalm 137By the Rivers or Babylon…By the Rivers or Babylon…

Communal Communal remembering…remembering…

Impassioned Protest…Impassioned Protest…

Honest praying…Honest praying…

… We must pray who we actually are, not who we think

we should be…The way of prayer is not to cover our

unlovely emotions so that they will appear respectable, but to expose them so that they can be enlisted in the work of the

kingdom’ (Eugene Peterson “Answering God” p100)

Honest prayer is a stepping Honest prayer is a stepping stonestone

‘Praying our hate can be the first step into the presence of God, where we learn that he has ways of dealing with what we bring him that are both other and better than what we had in mind. But until we are in prayer we are not teachable.’

(Eugene Peterson, Answering God p100)

A stepping stone to A stepping stone to forgivenessforgiveness

1) We hurt

2) We hate

3) We heal ourselves

4) We come together

(Lewis Smedes)

A Stepping stone to working for A Stepping stone to working for justicejustice

Hate may provide the spark for ignition, but love must be the fuel of our response