collective

Since the week I studied, The Prayer of Examen and The Prayer of Tears, from the prayer study I am running - the Lord has impressed upon me the desire to confess sin for my community.

From Foster's book, Prayer:

"What is the Prayer of Tears? It is being cut to the heart over our distance and offense to the goodness of God (acts 2:37). It is weeping over our sins and the sins of the world. It is entering into the liberating shocks of repentance. It is the intimate and ultimate awareness that sin cuts us off from the fullness of God's presence."

I read this and the Lord took my mind to Nehemiah 1,  and Daniel 9, and Isaiah 6. When Isaiah stands before the Lord and sees His glory, He cries out "I am a man of unclean lips and I come from a people of unclean lips." He knew that he was contaminated not only by his own sin but also the sin of his people.

In Nehemiah, when he hears of the conditions in Jerusalem it says "I sat down and wept. In fact for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.... Listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for Your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned!" He put his whole guts - everything into mourning for His people - and included himself into the whole collective sin.

In Daniel 9, here is a portion of his prayer:
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes.

I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:
"O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands. But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land.
  "Lord, you are in the right; but as you see, our faces are covered with shame. This is true of all of us, including the people of Judah and Jerusalem and all Israel, scattered near and far, wherever you have driven us because of our disloyalty to you. O LORD, we and our kings, princes, and ancestors are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the LORD our God, for we have not followed the instructions he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has disobeyed your instruction and turned away, refusing to listen to your voice.

I am amazed by this - I think because of our overly individualistic society - I would never own anyone else's sin except my own - and maybe to a small degree my children (mostly because I see a reflection of my sin nature in them).  How do I gain this much compassion for my people? And who are my people? My family? My church? My community? My country?

Yes - I think is the appropriate response to all of my questions of 'who are my people' - they all are my people. In all of this the Lord began directing me to pray for my church family. Confessing our sin - confessing our need for Him. Confessing our sin of mixing the Lord in with our own worldly pursuits, not loving Him with our whole hearts, not being open to His calling out to us, the sin of unbelief, and our pride to do things on our own.

I feel like this is just the beginning of some serious intercession on my church's behalf.