I received an email this week from Marshall Rowe, Director of Alumni Relations at Covenant College, which opened with this paragraph:

Late last semester an organization called Soulforce (www.soulforce.org) contacted Covenant to say they would like to bring the Equality Ride (www.equalityride.com) to our campus. The Equality Ride is a national bus tour of college campuses sponsored by Soulforce to challenge policies that they claim discriminate against homosexuals. This group targets colleges and universities that maintain a biblically-based stance on the issue of homosexuality, as Covenant does, and attempts to generate negative media attention to these institutions.

As you can imagine, this has generated a lot of discussion among alumni and friends of the college, most notably on Josiah’s blog. Marshall’s letter goes on to explain how Covenant was contacted by Soulforce, what proposals were made about visitation and dialogue, what agreements were actually reached, what stance the college takes on sexuality and what plans the school has for managing the event. It concludes with this prayer request.

We ask that you join us in prayer as we seek wisdom to handle this situation responsibly and in a Christ-like manner. We are a community that teaches students what it means to be Christian servant-leaders. This is an opportunity for us to live that out.

All of this serves as the background for this week’s Friday Vespers prayer (from 1 John 4:7-12 and Romans 12:1)

F

ATHER God, we love you not because we are able, but because you have enabled us to love you through the sending of your Son as a payment for our sins. Before we were dead in our transgressions; now we are made alive in Christ. Help us, O Lord, to never forget that we live entirely through Him and have no merit of our own with which to stand. Instill in us an ever deepening understanding of your grace, that grace which demanded the ultimate sacrifice. How unfathomable is your love that you would die for sinners like us! Overwhelm us with your love so that we might love one another as you have loved us. Your Word says that if we do not love, then we do not know you. Abide in us and manifest your love in us in such a way that we would see our fellow man as you see us—creatures made in the image of the Creator who are in desperate need of the same life-giving grace. Teach us in our daily walk what it means to die like Christ, so that through His mercy we might be made living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to you — Amen.