November 2, 2022
“The World Will End on November 8, 2022”: A Prayer
O Lord, not to do your job you understand, but the world
will end on
November 8, 2022;
at least, that’s what
both parties prophesying;
one party prophesying that
voting for the other party’s
candidates
will bring the end of the world;
other party prophesying that
voting for the other party’s
candidates
will bring the end of the world
(Hey, not kidding, heard the ads);
and so,
either way
the world
will end
on November 8, 2022,
Election Day.
But then, what’s new, Lord? I mean, I can’t count
the worlds
that have ended
since I first drew breath;
the world
of my childhood
ending when
the 50s became the 60s,
a strange new world emerging,
and more worlds after that,
stranger still,
until today’s world of childhood,
a world
so different,
so confusing,
so frightening,
many people saying
they’re glad they don’t have to
raise a child
in today’s world;
and other
worlds ended,
like the world
in which
people with
differing political views
could talk to one another,
have an actual discussion,
have a regular conversation,
and remain friends,
but no longer
in our new world
of anger and rancor,
friends unfriended,
friends become enemies,
politics driving everything
in what is now a
madhouse of a world;
and gone
is the world
in which
character, morality, truthfulness mattered,
replaced by a world
in which 2/3 of
Americans,
even 2/3 of
Christians,
don’t care about politicians’
character or honesty or morality,
care only about
money,
and maybe
a social issue or two, but
mainly money
(Hey, check out recent polls);
and still other worlds
ended,
the world
in which
violence not the main topic,
fear not the main feeling,
bitterness not the main emotion,
the world
in which
the good celebrated,
the honorable praised,
the decent admired;
and the
world of faith
no more,
many churches
no more,
not churches anymore,
success seminars, pep clubs, motivational classes,
God
no more,
the self everything,
flimsy faith failing.
O Lord, my prayer is a simple one and it is the prayer that
the world will end,
and it can’t be soon enough;
that this lunatic asylum
of world
will end
before it
brings the end
of us;
that our shabby world
with its
shabby politics, shabby morality, shabby faith,
will be no more;
but
since we are the ones
who built this madhouse
we call the world
and are now trapped
in the house we have built,
I pray too that,
as citizens,
we will
seek a more perfect union;
as Christians,
we will be
brave, honest, kind, generous, faithful;
as human beings,
we will be
human
one to the other;
and bring an end to what must come to an end,
and build a new world of
hope.
O Lord, if someone’s world is a world of illness or pain or loss
or grief or depression, how they want an end of that world
and the coming of a new world of healing, comfort,
strength, love, joy;
and if someone’s world is a
world of hunger, homelessness,
a refuge camp,
how they want an end to that world and the coming of
a new world of hungering no more, warm homes,
safe havens;
work
such new worlds!
O Lord, the world will end on November 8, 2022, or so
political parties prophesy,
and I hope
they’re right and
we witness the end of
this shambles of a world in which nearly every day I hear
someone say,
“When will it all end?”
the violence, they mean;
the madness, they mean;
the pathetic politics, they mean;
and tomorrow is
fine by me,
so that
a world of
goodness and holiness and love
can finally
come to birth.
Amen.
P. S. Lord, not to do your work you understand, but since we’re on the
subject of endings, I’d just like to mention that when it comes to
the ending that comes to us all sooner or later, my vote is for later
rather than sooner.
Amen again.