Prayer for Baccalaureate Sunday and Memorial Day Weekend

Holy One, this morning in worship we celebrate our high school graduates, remember this Memorial day weekend those who died in service of their country, and are amazed by your Glory expressed through the Trinity.  How wonderful that the diversity of these expression fills our worship, reflecting the diversity of your Creations and of your love.

And so our prayers this morning reflect this range through variety of our concerns and celebrations.

We rejoice with Jessica, Caitlin, Jackson and McKenna upon their graduation from high school, sharing their hopes for what comes next.  Fill them with your abundant, joyful life no matter what they may do or where their next steps bring them.  Remind them it is not only your love which provides a home for them in both times of joy and sorrow, but this community of faith offers them the same.

For your glory does fill this world O God, filling each and every person no matter who they are, what they do, where in life they are.  Your glory calls us into relationship with each other. Fill us now with your love, that we may live in ways that reflect your glory and love to all whom we encounter.

Your glory is witnessed in the grandeur of your justice which seeks reconciliation and dignity for all rather than punishment, retribution or vengeance.  We are grappling with the results of centuries of racism, misogynism, anti-Semitism, and other forces of division and caste on our common life. Remind us to seek your ways, living out justice as a interwoven community of abundance and care.  Lead us at the same time to  share your perseverance and the call to right wrongs that reduce people to “less than” or “those people” so we can deny their dignity and status as one of your beloved children.

For if we would only live in your ways of justice, we would know peace. Then there would no longer be a need to add to the list of those we remember this weekend who died in service of their country. Help us to honor them by following the ways of Christ so that their deaths not be in vain, living our lives as peace makers willing to lose what is necessary along the way.

Your glory does fill all O God, but sometimes we experience it best in little ways and not in experiences of grandeur. Help us to see it and live it out

in acts of compassion and care towards those hurting in body, mind, and spirit;

 through sitting silently with one who is grieving;

 in offering a cup of coffee or sandwich to someone hungry for both food and dignity;

 in all the ways Jesus does and call us to emulate in each day.

We lift up all these prayers, as well as the unspoken ones of our hearts and spirits in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

 

Prayer for Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021

 How amazing O God, your Spirit filled the first disciples until they were transformed. These frightened and unsure followers of Jesus suddenly had the courage to share the good news of your ever expansive love.

They were filled with uncontainable exuberance, drawing others into new ways of community and life- all shaped by your love and justice, overflowing with joy and compassion even in times of trouble and challenges

 Oh how we need that Spirit to fill us now O God! We need your Spirit that moves us to act secure in your love and with joy. With confidence that even as we await the fulfillment of your promises, we can still experience them now.

 We long for your Spirit to push us out into the wider world as it did the first disciples, so we too may follow the ways of Jesus: proclaiming Good News to the poor, healing to broken and hurting, and justice to the oppressed.

Push us out to live as the disciples lived, not only speaking these words with our mouths, but also embodying them no matter the push back or cost.

 

Enable us to be become your peace bearers, whether it be in the long running Israel Palestine violence and wars, on the streets where guns and weapons are too often used to settle disputes or gain notoriety, or wherever you would need us.

Open our eyes to ways that even the smallest action by us may become a conduit of peace for others.

As we start to come out the other side of this pandemic, fill us not only with compassion but a desire to be of service to our siblings in other places where CoVID is still raging.

Pervade our interactions and reactions with compassion and patience as so many take timid steps back into the so-called normal life.

Our politicians could use your Spirit filling them with love and wisdom. Lead them to  emulate the disciples in their willingness to work through disagreements in ways that built up community as they address challenges, instead of seeking personal gain or political points.

For that divisiveness and anger spills over into the lives of the people of this nation and even in our personal relationships. As your Spirit did bringing together over 3,000 thousand diverse people to form a new Community of faith who join in a way of life, let it weave us together so we too may rejoice with each other rather than fight even when we disagree- no matter who we are, no matter our differences or our commonalities.

Wherever there is pain, wherever there is despair, wherever there is hate and oppression, blow the new life of your Spirit through so that the unexpected and wonders of your love and justice become as evident as twelve disciples speaking in different languages at once of your ways.

Come Holy Spirit, Come, Fill our lives, our communities, and our world with your power, your joy , and your love.  

We lift all these prayers, as well as the unspoken ones of our hearts and spirits, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

 Prayer from Sunday, May 16, 2021

What a wonder O God, the ways you provide for us- you give us your Word to Guide us, Jesus to follow, and sojourners who uplift us and teach us along life’s way.  Loved ones, friends, our community of faith, people who have come before us, all combine into a good soil for us to become rooted in a life of faith to your ways.

We need that soil Holy One, for at times your ways are counter to the ways of the world- for some reason the world prefers grappling for as much as can be taken with violence, oppressing others along the way. You offer a life together of joyous abundance found living in ways of peace, compassion, and loving justice. Not to live only for ourselves and “our own”- but within the vast connective current of love through your diversity of people, places, and practices.

Hear us now as we lift up some of those situations, people, and places where your connections of loving justice and compassion are needed.

Violence is once again reigning over the lands of Israel and Gaza- how long must we pray for peace? Plant and nurture your peace in all those involved, that they may come together in ways to bring your peace and your justice to all the people in those lands.

We are grateful that the trajectory of CoVID infections in this country has turned to the better.  Keep us mindful of those who are still vulnerable among us, so that we still take the precautions needed to keep them safe until is safe for all.

There are still many places where CoVID is ravaging lives- we lift up India, seeking you to guide us to where we have the resource we can and should share to help them save lives, giving us the willingness and compassion to do so. Turn our hearts desire from self-interests to self-giving.

We wonder if it will ever be possible to have conversations around the policies and issue we face that does not end in shouting and further entrenched divisions. Bring us to the place where we recognize what we hold in common and let us start our discussions from there. Drown out the voices of those who prefer to make soundbites and score political points rather than work for what can come from your ways of compassion, liberation, and peace.

As we think of these, we also hold in our hearts situations, places, people, closer to us. Surround all who are hurting in body, mind and spirit with your peace and strength.  Fill those who take care of their needs with not only the skills needed, but compassion for those they care for.

Comfort all who grieve losses this day, of loved ones, of hopes and dreams, of plans and possibilities.  Keep with them even when they cannot recognize your presence, until they can see sparks of joy and hope along with their tears.

We lift all these prayers, as well as the unspoken ones of our hearts and spirits in the name of Jesus.  Amen.