A Prayer for May Day 2025

I offered this closing prayer at today's May Day rally in Concord, based on the Lord's prayer. See coverage of the event on InDepthNH.

Good and gracious God,
deliver us from the evil
of rejecting the divine image in which we are created
of rejecting that dignity, value and infinite worth you alone give us.
We confess that we instead begged for our dignity and our rights
from the powerful and the privileged,
who are a poor imitation of you, God.
deliver us from the evil
of the shallow materialism
that tells us the lie that if someone else gets what they need,
then I'm not getting what I need.
We confess we let this lie divide us,
and gave pretext to hate one another,
and, being divided, let ourselves be cheated of our power.
deliver us from the evil
of the abuse and distortion of our great diverse religious traditions,
the distortion that tells the lie
that some work is shameful,
that poverty is a moral choice,
and that some human beings are illegal.
We confess we need your help to honor our religious founders
who are often themselves workers and immigrants:
Moses, the shepherd of Midian under Jethro,
Jesus, the carpenter of Galilee under Joseph the Worker,
Mohammed, the merchant under his uncle Abu Taalib.
to show us how true faith honors all workers, all immigrants
and all the poor and vulnerable.
Teach us again the lesson that our nation struggles to learn:
teach us the lesson of Moses,
who knew that begging from Pharaoah could not bring freedom
but, with your help, bringing the people together was the way.
Teach us again the lesson from Jesus,
who knew that hate could never end Caesar's indomitable power,
so he traveled through the villages of Galilee to find the workers and the poor
and united them in a message of love, a force more powerful than Caeser could understand.
Teach us again the lessons of empathy
that prove the lie of cynical, zero-sum thinking,
that tricks us into believing that helping our neighbor is wrong,
Teach us that we might know instead
that when we lift from the bottom, everybody rises.
Teach us again to see each other with spiritual eyes
that see the dignity, value and infinite worth you placed in each of us.
Teach us
that the way of love is the only true power,
that the way of respect can make mighty empires fall,
and can bring about that which we pray for,
a world where your will is done on earth as it is in heaven,
where your will of perfect dignity, on earth as it is in heaven,
where your will of perfect justice, on earth as it is in heaven,
where your will of perfect peace, on earth as it is in heaven,
where your will of perfect love, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.