a community creating for the relentless return of Sunday
Most loving and gracious God, we give you thanks for your unending faithfulness. We come into your presence with praise and with hope, for you are good, and you call us your own. You created us in your image, and you shepherd us through this life, calling us by name and leading us in your way. We confess that we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have wandered from your path, choosing to walk in shadow rather than light. We have built fences and believed they make us better neighbors, we have created requirements and believed they were yours, we have stood silent as the door was shut, we have called for peace without working for justice. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive our inadequate imaginations, for we cannot see the height and depth and breadth of your love. Forgive our closed eyes and hearts and minds, keeping the light at bay. Forgive our complicity in the systems of injustice that make the world go round. Open us to know your truth, and to live according to your word. Help us to experience the fullness of your grace, and then make us true reflections of that grace for others. Guide us once again into the abundant life that you desire for all creation. We ask in the name of the One whose love we see on the cross and in the empty tomb, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, Marchmont St. Giles Parish Church, Edinburgh, Scotland
Christ our Savior, Lord of all,
as we journey with you we are aware of the difficulty and suffering of the world you love so dearly.
There are those who suffer rejection, injustice, and violence for their commitment to your way or their differences from the religious majority in their land.
Blessed Jesus, Hear us when we pray.
There are many who seek power and status to fill a deeper need than the world can fill; there are many more who are oppressed or ignored on account of that pursuit of power.
Blessed Jesus, Hear us when we pray.
There are children who depend on others to speak for them, sinners who long to know that they are welcomed into your love, and misfits who struggle to know where they belong.
Blessed Jesus, Hear us when we pray.
There are those who face illness and death today, and there are those who grapple with broken and hurtful relationships; there are so many who cry out for mercy.
Blessed Jesus, Hear us when we pray.
And there are so many who seek to follow you, who are learning to serve their neighbors in love and treat their enemies with compassion.
Blessed Jesus, Hear us when we pray.
We are among those who would follow, and we place our lives at your disposal, joining together in the prayer you taught, saying: …The Lord’s Prayer
Submitted by Rev. Nathan Williams, Echo Hill Presbyterian Church, Cedar Rapids, IA
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