Prayer for Fifth Sunday After Pentecost- June 27, 2021

We marvel at how you care for us all O God, always with us, reaching out with love, care, strength- whatever you know we need. All the while you join the cries of those imploring us to live with justice, and for liberation, reconciliation, relief from inequities and outright harm.

And yet we struggle to do even a fraction of the same. We become so self focused on “mine”:  “My goals, my obligations, my commitments”. Do we do this because of fear? pride? Our own hurts? Is that why we hear these cries as intrusions, interruptions, even dangers to our lives.

And yet some of these cries do break through to our ears and into hearts. So this morning we lift those up to you.

Watching the families wait for word about their loved ones in Surfside is agonizing O God, but not as agonizing as for them and for you. Where we can be of service- send us. We pray for miracles, even as we know no matter what comes, you weep with the families, strengthen the search and rescue workers, and prepare others to be of comfort and aid for what lies ahead.

The sentencing of Derek Chauvin this week reopened unhealed wounds from the death of George Floyd, and decadesof racism and oppression. Show us how to be  join you in your work of justice here, not of retribution or revenge  Lead us to join you in your justice which that brings liberation from hate, frees institutions and systems from the vestiges of racism implanted decades and centuries ago, and ultimately brings about reconciliation and community celebrating differences among those of all races.

As Pride month draws to a close we give thanks for the progress for our  LBGTQIA+ siblings that leads more fully to the recognition that who one loves or how one identifies defies labeling by others. Yet we also mourn there are still words, actions, and legislation that seeks to degrade them, limit their lives, otherwise deny their fully dignity and humanity, and at times take the breathe from their bodies.  Forgive us when we fail to act or speak up, to stand with any of our siblings in your family when others would attack them with words, laws, or fists.

We think of those who are hurting in other ways, in body, mind or spirt due to illness, disease or injury. Continue to bring them your peace and strength as well as those to serve as your heart  and hands. 

Comfort those who mourn, blanketing them in your love until they again can glimpse that the future can hold joy, and despair can end even amidst their tears.

 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 4th Sunday After Pentecost- Father's Day June 20, 2021

 

Gracious God: we sometimes call you Father, for when we are in need of a safe place, a secure place, you are there. As a small child might ask their father to lift them up to feel secure and protected, you hold us close and tight in your love.

You create such an expanse of ways for one to be a father and raise a child that it is impossible to celebrate and pray for each in one prayer. And while it is easy to celebrate fathers who raised their children well and are still with us, this day can be challenging for those with different experiences, where parent and child’s relations is complicated.  So we lift up our prayers of gratitude alongside those for grace and healing in all relationships between a father and child.

We rejoice for Fathers who could their child upon their shoulders so that they see over fences or others at parades when they were young, then share wisdom to help clear their adult child’s vision when challenges block their way. 

Thank you for fathers who will fight for the good of their children, for the right to food, for equality, for life, for housing, for education, for acceptance and for love.  We ask your grace upon the times and those who have been unable to do so.

We give thanks for close parent child relationships, where the memories and times together are good, and life-giving. Yet no relationship is perfect. Fill any mistakes, failures, or unmet expectations with grace for all.

 Days such as this can be harder for those living within strained or broken relationships, or where harm done to one or the other. The celebrations can make the difference between what is and what is hoped for starker, more isolating, or deepen resentments or grief. In those times and spaces, work through your grace and healing. Bring comfort that they are still held in your love. Where it is healthy and possible, may your Spirit weave together these relationships.

Dull the pain this day can bring for those who wanted children but could not have them, and reassure them of their wholeness, their value, and your love.

We think of those who have faced the heartbreak of losing a child at any stage in life.  Bring them a sense of solace and peace as they mourn.

Reassure those whose fathers have died that even though they grieve, they cannot be orphaned from the love of their parent or from your love. 

We give thanks for those who are not our father, but stepped in for a moment, for a season, for a lifetime as if a father to us. 

We give thanks for families where the bond is one of love and not also by DNA, where there are two father, or where mothers take on both roles.

Thank you for being Our Father, and Mother. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.