Warning: I am angry.

Last night there was another mass shooting. This time in Texax (again). At least 8 dead, many others wounded. Unmeasured psychological trauma for the hundreds involved, lives forever changed for witnessing and responding to chaos and murder. Politicians literally copying and pasting their “thoughts and prayers” messages once again. It’s a chilling and disgusting cycle.

Today’s reading is Matthew 6:5-15, The Lord’s Prayer. I’ve taken the liberty to give a modern spin on Jesus’ words. Hang in there with me.

Jesus gives us a model of how to pray, but before he gives us those famous words so many of us know by heart, he gives us some instructions. He starts by saying, “Don’t be like the hypocrites who announce their prayers because all that does is make it clear you want attention. Instead, go inside, hide even, and get serious about your prayers.” In other words, stop trying to grab news media headlines and leverage social media algorithms with your prayer messages. Just pray like you mean it, and stop announcing it. Jesus called those public prayers hypocrites.

Next, but still before his famous prayer template, Jesus says, “Knock it off with the meaningless repetition. It’s not like our Father hears you louder because you keep rambling on or keep saying the same thing over and over. He knows what you need before you ask for it. So focus more on your heart, that you mean it, than just spewing some canned prayer over and over.” See also: repeating the phrase “Thoughts and Prayers” and thinking it holds any real meaning.

Finally, Jesus gets to the meat of it:

First, acknowledge and honor the God we are praying to. He’s not a genie to grant our wishes, he is Lord. He is not the Lord of Republicans or Democrats. He is not the Lord of 2A or gun reform. He is the Lord of us all.

Next, recognize that the world we live in is not what God wants for us. His Kingdom is described by peace, love, forgiveness, humility, and honor. Not the racism, hatred, anger, and violence we live in now. If we sincerely want God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, then we can’t just pay lip service, we have to get our hearts into it, asking God to melt us into action to do the things that are required to bring some hint of his Kingdom here now. Children dying from gun violence is not what Jesus’ Kingdom will look like.

Now we get to the asking part: give us just what we need. This day’s bread. Not excess. Just what we need. Because excess comes at the expense of others. Money, power, and material goods in excess of what we need corrupt us. Jesus’ words here are a warning. Be content with just what you need. Taking money from people or organizations that color our decision-making or make us biased and blinded to the needs of those around us is not what Jesus meant by satisfied alone with our daily bread.

Then forgive. If we forgive, we are then forgiven. To forgive means to let go of anger and resentment. It means to cancel a debt. To see others as equally broken in the eyes of the Lord. To recognize my own faults, mistakes and not think that I am any better than anyone else.

And finally, lead us out of temptation. Deliver us from evil. What is temptation? It’s the lure to do something unwise, dangerous even, because of the false hope that it will bring power, honor, glory, wealth, comfort, pleasure, or security. The Evil one tempts us with lies that violence will quell violence; that fear and anxiety can be soothed with weapons. We have all of the evidence in the world to tell us this isn’t true, but our stubborn hearts just can’t seem to believe that Jesus was right when he said to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile. We just refuse to believe that we can actually conquer violence and evil by ratcheting up peace instead of more violence.

I warned you I am angry. I get angry when people say they are praying about gun violence, about mass shootings, about firearm injury, about children dying from firearms more than any other means. I am angry that the sacred act of prayer has been bastardized into a campaign slogan. I am angry that we are on pace to experience more mass shootings this year than have been recorded since this type of data has been collected nearly 20 years ago. I am angry that I and others who I care about are left to deal with the physical and emotional carnage of gun violence.

I am angry about prayer. I am angry that Christians would absolve themselves from responsibility to actually address gun violence because their magical genie, God, seemingly doesn’t answer their prayers to “save the children” so I guess it isn’t in his plan. Oh well. Nothing we can do. (For more on why prayer can be a trigger for anger, listen to this podcast from Straight White American Jesus: It’s In the Code: Praying for You.)

I am angry today because innocent lives are lost each day because we refuse to take action on our gun epidemic. I am doubly angry because the ones who I thought would be leading the way to save lives and protect the innocent are the very ones using prayer as a defense for their inaction.

The Lord’s Prayer is not a Twitter meme or a religious trinket. It’s a call to personal humility and public action. It’s a warning that we will be held accountable for not only what we do, but what we don’t do.

Lord, have mercy on our souls for hearing your words and refusing to allow them to penetrate our hearts.

Disclaimer: My viewpoints are not necessarily reflective of my employer, or any local, regional or national organization that I belong to. As a matter of fact, I pretty much just speak for myself. Please keep that in mind.