By DEREK RUMBOL
Tuesday 28 July 2020
Jeremiah 9:23,24 – a challenge to the nations’ priorities:
- human wisdom, physical strength, riches and wealth all have a short
shelf life – or God’s eternal steadfast love, justice and righteousness.
Prayer
Daily Devotional 8 May 2002 on 75th Anniversary of VE Day -from Derek
A VE Day Prayer by Helen Paynter
God of justice and self-sacrifice, healing and reconciliation,
Prince of peace and victorious risen Saviour.
Today we remember the events of VE day and all that day signified:
- the culmination of enormous sacrifices made by individuals,
communities and nations,
- the formal conclusion of unspeakable sufferings inflicted by humanity
upon humanity,
- gain and loss; victory and defeat; joy and sorrow.
God of righteous outrage and justice, we thank you for the end to the Third
Reich and all the hatred and evil that it unleashed upon the world.
God of grace and restoration, we thank you for those who gave their energy
to peace and reconciliation after the war: who worked with bricks and
mortar, finance and health care, hearts and minds to bring aid, restore
communities, and to rebuild bridges of trust between nations.
God of healing and new beginnings, we confess that we have not wholly
lived in the new possibility that peace and victory opened up. We have
continued to wage war, we have turned once again to suspicion and
antagonism against other peoples and nations. We have permitted the rise
of hate-based ideologies across Europe. And we have allowed the seeds of
murder and war to continue to live in our own hearts.
God of victory and peace, we look forward to the end of all evil – including
our own; the end of all violence – including our own; and to the coming of
your glorious kingdom of love and justice. And we commit ourselves once
again to working with you towards that beautiful goal.
Amen.
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