Pray for Our World

The will of God. I repeat, the will of God.

The will of God is that all might know the grace and love of God. The shootings in Orlando grieve our hearts and call us to prayer. And beyond prayer, they call us to action.

The will of God is that Christian people will stand strong in the face of evil and sin. We are the people of God. What has happened in our world is a call to action.

No one should live in fear that they will be killed for who they are.

No one in our society should live in fear that they cannot be who they are – in the world, and in the Church.

No one should live in fear – period!

We are witnessing an atrocity. People seeking to enjoy a time of relaxation and engagement met with violence and death.

This is not the will of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, please hear me. This is not a time of debating issues. This is not a time of focusing on gun rights or LGBTQ concerns. This is a time of attending to the will of God.

Our God is a God of love, reconciliation, healing and grace. We are witnessing the destruction of children of God’s own creation. Men and women, created in the image of God, were gunned down because of who they were born to be. Children of our Holy God were targeted for destruction by a broken and disturbed individual. We pray for the victims, for the families of the victims, for the perpetrator, and for the family of the perpetrator. We pray for our world. We pray for a world that is torn apart by gun violence. We pray for a world where hate and misunderstanding cause so much harm and pain. We pray for a world where violence is viewed as a solution to any problem. Friends, please join me in prayer for our world, and for our Church, where we divide our thinking into who is worthy and who is not. We will never support a world of violence and division. Our vision is always for a world of harmony and peace.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Grace and Peace,

Hee-Soo Jung, PhD
Bishop