Oh Holy and Awesome God,

This week is a time of remembrance. This week will commemorate two genocides from the 20th century - the first was perpetrated against the Armenian people and the second against the Jewish people. In both of these genocides we were failed by unjust laws, and cruel governments that terrorized its citizens for the simple crime of being of different religions and different ethnicities.

We learn from the Bible that the true purpose of laws is not to encourage us do what comes easily, but to compel us to do what is needed to create a just and fair society. In the Bible we are commanded to both love our neighbors (Lev. 19:18) and to love the stranger who resides in our midst (Lev. 19:34).

O God you command us to do these things not because it comes naturally to us, but because when we don’t, we risk creating a society where the weak and the vulnerable can be persecuted for the simple crime of being weak and vulnerable.

Those who make laws hold in their hands great power. They have the ability to lift us up or to tear us apart.

May it be Your will oh God, that those who make laws will always be inspired by Your love and Your compassion for all that You have created. May this be God’s will. Amen.