INTERCESSION PRAYERS 13/08/06

These were the intercession prayers I led at my church today:

 

Lord, our readings today are about a son, Absalom, who rebelled against his father, David, and died as a result.

We want to pray for all those sons who rebel against you. Please guide them away from sin and into the peace and mercy of your Holy Spirit.

I pray especially for George Bush, Tony Blair, Ehud Olmert, Hassan Nasrallah and Usama bin Laden. These people all profess to believe in you - they claim to be serious Christians, Jews and Moslems. Yet all have been responsible for and some are at this very moment committing mass murder.

Please guide them into the ways of a true godly spirit. Like David, we pray that they don't die but that they will be reconciled to you.

 

In our readings we also heard about a son who obeyed his father's will, our Saviour Jesus Christ. We want to thank you, God, for all those sons who do their best to obey your will. For our archbishop Rowan, our bishop Steven, our new and old ministers, Tom, Martin and Jutta. Thank you too for all those who help to keep our church running and for our congregation both here and at Christ Church. We pray that our church will continue to thrive and grow.

 

We think of our friends who are ill and thank you for your healing power. Thank you that Eugenie's eyes are fine. Her operation is on Friday and we pray that all will be well. We know that you will make all well.

 

We also think of our friends who are suffering. Thank you for saving the three Christians in Indonesia from immediate execution and we pray that their lives may be spared so that they can continue to give Christian witness.

 

I would like to pray for all the Lebanese and Israelis who are suffering because of the violence inflicted on them by Israel and Hezbollah. So far there are over 100 Israeli dead, over 1000 Lebanese dead, tens of thousands wounded and over 500,000, that is half a million, displaced. But I find such large numbers impossible to grasp. So I will ask for my own friends to represent all those others. I want my own church here to ask you to remember and take care of my own friends, on behalf of all those others.

 

First, my friends in Israel. Please remember Irit and Yevgeni in Haifa, being bombed; Elad and the members of Amnesty International in Tel Aviv; all my ex-colleagues in the Anglican community in Jerusalem and Caesarea and in Tabeetha School in Jaffa. Lord, please keep them safe.

 

Next, my friends who are stuck in Lebanon. Yahya's village, Srifa, was flattened two weeks ago. He and his family have had to move twice since then and they still don't know if their own house is still standing.

 

Yahya, Elie and George are without work because nobody is moving around in Beirut, nobody is taking taxis. Please give them their daily bread so they can feed their families and also spiritual bread so they have the strength to cope with this awful situation.

 

We pray for my ex-student Walid and his Mum, who suddenly lost their summer school jobs because their school became temporary accommodation for refugees from the southern suburbs of Beirut and from south Lebanon. Also for Jackie, stuck in Beirut, not knowing when her area will be bombed. She too has lost the chance of teaching summer school. Please make up to their students for this loss of their education.

 

We pray for Sarah, a devout Christian, whose husband has Alzheimer's disease. How the noise of the bombs terrifies him as he doesn't understand what's going on around him. Please enable her to cope for both of them and for their family.

 

We pray for Nizar, a Baptist minister, who cannot get down into Beirut to his church. We pray too for Raymond, Edmund and the rest of my own church congregation left in Lebanon, who also cannot get down into Beirut to go to church but are meeting in people's homes up on Mount Lebanon.

 

Third, we pray for those who were evacuated and are now here and elsewhere without clothes, money, permanent accommodation or work. For Sue and her family and for her husband Serkis left in Beirut. And for my ex-colleague Lorna and for Riad and his wife, now stranded here in limbo. May they be reunited with their families soon.

 

Lord, for all these people and those others they represent, thank you that we have been pulled back from the brink of a third world war. Thank you that neither Iran nor Israel have used their nuclear weapons yet.

We pray that the ceasefire which is supposed to start tomorrow morning will hold and that following it a permanent solution may be worked out between Lebanon and Israel. The ceasefire will never hold if it is left in human hands. The arms industries of the UN security council's five permanent member countries are selling weapons to all sides. The Syrian, Lebanese and Israeli drugs barons, working together, depend on chaos to make their profits. The Israeli government wants trouble in the region to encourage America to invade Syria and Iran. The Hezbollah and Iran want trouble in the region so they can create chaos on which to build an Islamic Republic of Lebanon. Self-interest outweighs peace.

Only if we put the ceasefire in your hands is there any hope of a lasting peace. Please give us that peace.