Daily Worship

Rachel weeping

Katy Emslie-Smith May 08, 2014 0 0

Jeremiah 31:15-17

This is what the Lord says:

‘A voice is heard in Ramah,
    mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.’

This is what the Lord says:

‘Restrain your voice from weeping
    and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,’
declares the Lord.
    ‘They will return from the land of the enemy.
So there is hope for your descendants,’
declares the Lord.
    ‘Your children will return to their own land.

 

Luke 13:34

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

Father in heaven,
A mother’s grief is not new to you.
Too many times you have heard
Rachel weep, beyond reach of  consolation,
Because her children are no more.

And so we pray for those Rachels
Whose mourning you hear today.
For the mothers of Syria
Who have rubbed their children’s blue feet
And cried for warmth in a mountain’s winter,
For the mothers of Sudan 
Who have watched the trail of dust
On the horizon, not knowing
If it brought food or firearms,
For the mothers of Ukraine
Who weep for their children’s future
Seen through the silhouettes of tanks and rifle butts,
For the mothers, our neighbours,
Who just down the road, 
Sorrow for their children, 
Lost in the sunken eyes
Of dependence and misuse.

God incarnate,
You knew a mother’s heart
As you longed for the city’s children
To gather them up as a hen
Gathers her chicks.
Give hope to those who grieve 
For their next generation,
Give hope that, however exiled,
Their children will return to their own land.

 

by Katy Emslie-Smith