Faithful God, your promises are sure.
Receive the gifts we present to you
as signs of our hope.
Draw us into your kingdom,
which comes in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Submitted by Rev. Nathan Williams, Covenant Presbyterian Church, West Des Moines, IA
Confession: other powers
O God, our protector, we take refuge in you;
you alone are the source of all our good.
We seek to be counted among the godly and upright,
but we confess that we have run after other powers,
and we have brought trouble upon ourselves and others.
O Lord, our portion and our cup,
you sustain us and lead us in good and pleasant ways.
We confess that we have trusted in false wisdom
and set our hearts on short-sighted desires.
Forgive us, God our life.
Help us set you always before us,
and sustain us in your righteousness.
Let our hearts be glad, our spirits rejoice,
and our bodies rest in hope,
for you do not abandon us to our sin
or let your chosen ones dwell in the pit.
In Christ you show us the path of life;
you welcome us into the joy of your presence;
you feed us with pleasures forevermore. Amen.
Rev. Nathan Williams, Covenant Presbyterian Church, West Des Moines, IA
approach and confession: storyteller
God, you are a storyteller, and you made us in your image. You spoke, and you still speak, through unexpected people, through silence, through your word written and proclaimed through the centuries. We come to hear your story once again, to find our place among your people and within your vision for all creation. We hear You call us to share your story in our words and in our actions, but we confess that more often our lips are sealed. We are afraid to tell your story. We think we don’t know enough, and we are afraid of offending. We prefer to keep you to ourselves.
Yet still Your word, O Lord, is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
Forgive us for letting the book gather dust on the shelf, and the story gather dust in our hearts.
Speak to us, and through us, Lord.
Help us to know you so well that we cannot help but love you, and to love you so much we
cannot help but serve you, sharing your good news in every place, for it is in doing your
will that we find perfect freedom.
We pray in the name of the one who is your Living Word, Jesus the Christ.
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, St. John’s Church of Scotland, Gourock, Scotland
POP: help us care
Let us pray to the Lord, saying:
Healing God, help us care for one another.
We recently acknowledged the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria.
We pray for our friends and family in Puerto Rico who are still recovering.
We pray for the estimated 2,975 people who lost their lives because of the storm.
We pray for the people of Puerto Rico who have endured the horrors of colonialism.
We pray for our politicians, that they may give Puerto Ricans as much respect and dignity
as they do those of us who live in the states.
Healing God, help us care for one another.
We pray this day for those who are still recovering from Hurricane Florence,
for friends, family, and strangers in the Carolinas and Georgia,
for those whose businesses had to close during the storm and lost revenue,
for those without homes that had no where to run,
and for those in marginalized communities who are more heavily affected by the destruction.
Healing God, help us care for one another.
Today is a day that the Presbyterian Mission Agency encourages congregations such as ours
to pray especially for the gifts of new immigrants.
We acknowledge this day, Gracious God:
that your scripture, time and time again, tells us to treat the foreigner with compassion,
that your son came into this world on the run from a dangerous political regime,
that he was born in a dirty, dusty manger as a marginalized person,
and that this country is not treating immigrants as justly as you call us to.
We give thanks for the gifts that new immigrants bring to this country
and we choose to remind ourselves of the truth that diversity makes us stronger.
Healing God, help us care for one another.
Gracious and Steadfast God,
we pray this day for those who are sick and in need of your care,
for those who are hospitalized,
for those undergoing treatment for cancer and other illnesses,
for those who cry out to you for health and healing.
We pray especially for those we lift up to you in silence…
Healing God, help us care for one another.
Author of our Lives,
hear us now as we pray as you taught us to pray, saying: Our Father…
Submitted by Rev. Stephen M. Fearing, Beaumont Presbyterian Church, Lexington, KY
Illumination: dance in your love
Divine Spirit,
surround us with the wisdom of your word
that we might dance in your love
and be messengers of your truth in this world. Amen.
Submitted by Rev. Stephen M. Fearing, Beaumont Presbyterian Church, Lexington, KY
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