a community creating for the relentless return of Sunday
submitted by Mike Trautman, First Presbyterian Church of Ferguson, MO
L: Our world offers many wide avenues
and beautiful boulevards to walk;
P: Our God invites us to walk the road
of service and sacrifice.
L: Our society suggests we put down our roots
in the shallow soil of pleasure and greed.
P: Our God seeks to plant us on the banks of hope,
watered by the rivers of joy and grace.
L: Our culture promotes achievement, success,
climbing to the top, ringing the bell.
P: Our God tells us if we want to be first
we need to go to the end of the line.
Submitted by Rev. Thom Shuman, author of Lectionary Liturgies.
Loving God,
we come this day with gratitude for the gift of life,
for the beauty of your world and your people around us.
We also come this day with hurt, with grief, with confusion—
and we lift up to you those who are in pain,
those who suffer, those who live with illness.
We ask for your comfort to surround your people who sorrow,
your peace to surround your people who live with violence,
your hope to surround your people in despair.
There are many things we do not understand,
and so we pray for your wisdom.
Even as we watch news
of riots and typhoons and shooting in our streets,
we call out for your kingdom of justice and peace and love.
And yet we do not always act as if your kingdom is at hand.
Remind us, Lord, to keep our attention on you.
Set our minds on divine things, that we may be agents of your healing.
Focus our eyes on you, that we may not be seduced by other gods.
When our hearts turn to other ways, call us back to your way.
Help us, O God, to follow you, to live like you, to seek your will,
that the world may know your grace.
Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.
(silence)
You have called us to let go of our own vision to follow yours,
and have promised to be with us on the way.
Walk with us and help us to be faithful.
We pray these, and all things, in the name of our Risen Lord Jesus,
who taught us to pray together…
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, Ridgefield Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church, Crystal Lake IL.
People often ask how to define sin. Sin is simply anything that harms relationships – our relationships with each other, our relationships with our true selves, and our relationship with God. We sin in many ways. Sometimes we sin with our actions, and sometimes we sin with our inaction. Let us pray for all the times we failed to stand up for what is right, failed to protect those who Jesus calls the least of these.
(prayer of confession)
Submitted by Rev. Jeff Lukens, St. John’s United Church of Christ, Chambersburg, PA
We long for wisdom, O Lord, but prefer that it be our own.
We turn away from the ideas of others
and ignore the possibility and promise that come from life together with you.
Most of all, we drown out your gift of Wisdom as she seeks to get our attention,
for we believe that we know better
or would prefer to decide where we make her welcome.
Forgive us, loving God.
Bring an end to the self-righteousness that ignores you,
and awaken us anew to the Wisdom that comes only from you.
Show us how to walk in your ways and listen to your promise each and every day.
Submitted by Rev. Andy James, First Presbyterian Church, Whitestone, Queens, New York.
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