Seeking Shalom: Working Toward Just Atonement

A Litany of Embodied Justice

By Sam Zeigler

Let us pray.

Let us pray for peace—
let us march for peace,
call out with voices united,
lift our hands and sing for peace—
cry out that the nations would rest,
the war machines be still.

Let us pray that we could become
the same peace that we shout for,
that the storms in our souls
would be quieted,
that we might embody
that for which we pray.

Peace, peace.

Let us pray.

Let us pray for unity—
let us join hands with our neighbors,
united as we walk for justice—
we are liberated only
if we are human together,
strangers no longer.

Let us pray that we would become
the unity that we strive for—
that the injustices and injuries
clinging to our lives
may be willfully and knowingly wiped away—
that we might embody
that for which we pray.

Unity, unity.

Let us pray.

Let us pray for justice,
let us lift all voices together,
shouting for freedom and equity—
all people, times, and places—
‘til the way of the earth bends
and all her people are free.

Let us pray that we would become
the justice that we yearn for,
that we might use our power
to create spaces of safety,
for all to have voice
and body and power—
that we might embody
that for which we pray.

Justice, justice.

Let us pray now for peace.
Let us pray now for unity.
Let us pray now for justice.
Let us pray now for our prayers
to lift as more than voices,
to create as more than words,
to live in full embodiment—
who we say we are,
who we pray to be.

Let us remake the world together.
Let us then be justice.
Let us then be united.
Let there then be peace.

Amen.

Sam Zeigler is lead producer of the Just Talk/Talk Just project at Union Presbyterian Seminary and a French teacher in Chesterfield County, Virginia. In 2021, she completed her master of divinity at Union Presbyterian Seminary, and in 2022, she followed it with a master of theology focusing on atonement theory and trauma theology. She is a candidate for ordination in the Shenango Presbytery of the PC(USA).