creativity

God of imagination and creativity…
we gather from many different places…
we gather from many different contexts and situations…
we gather with many different questions,
and many different hopes…
but we’re all here for the same reason…
to discover the joy of a
safe, barrier-free, intentional community.

This table we surround
has reminded us this week
that life is not always as you intend it to be.

We often encounter these same signs.
No Trespassing!
Keep Out!
Private Property!
Under Surveillance!

And when we’re not encountering them ourselves,
we’re nailing them to our own fences.

This table we surround
has reminded us this week
that life is not always as you intend it to be.

And yet,
it also paints for us
your perfect vision for creation.

A vision that does not exclude.

A vision that celebrates the good-ness of your creation.

A vision that does not reach full satisfaction
until everyone has sat…
until everyone has eaten…
until everyone has drank…
and until everyone has loved and been loved.

So help us all…this day…
to fully discover your image within us…
to draw our own pictures…
to paint it with our fingers…
to color outside the lines with our jumbo boxes of crayons…
and to make it all into one, big, messy…
yet absolutely perfect…
collage of creation
that dares to challenge our deep-rooted prejudices
and quiets the cacophony of pre-conceived notions
that plague our minds.

Give us the courage
to embrace the energy and enthusiasm
that flows deep within us…
so that our discussions today
might inspire us…
transform us…
and move us forward.

We look for this inspiration…
even now…
as we gaze upon the Christ…
whose words and actions
challenge us to a life
that moves each of us far beyond ourselves
toward every OTHER that surrounds us…
even now…
as we sing that familiar prayer of Jesus together…

(We closed with a sung version of “The Lord’s Prayer”)

Submitted by Scott Cervas, pastor at Meadowthorpe Presbyterian Church (Lexington, KY), this prayer was used in a morning prayer service at Unconference East at Stony Point Conference center (Stony Point, NY) on May 22, 2012.