Pastoral Prayer from Sunday, April 6 Our story is steeped in yours, O God. It is a story of creation and longing. It is a story of building and planting and prompting, a story of prophets who raged and disciples who didn’t get it, a story of angels stuck on repeat saying “do not be afraid.” It is a story of a brutal cross and a broken son, a story of a stone rolled back and a brand new day. We want to be your new people. But there’s often a gap between who we want to be and who we actually are. So fill in the gaps, God. Fill in the gaps as you always have, making us better than we sometimes believe ourselves to be, filling us with mercy and redemption, with judgement and justice, with creativity and tradition, with improvisation and promise. And when we are hesitant, O God, when we are reluctant, when we are nervous, when our voices tremble and our stomachs churn, when we are tempted to say “slow down,” remind us that there are so many among us who are desperate for something new. We pray for those who will spend today in a hospital bed, waiting on medicine to work waiting on test results waiting on new technology We pray for a new day of healing. We pray for those who will spend tonight tormented by their own thoughts, longing for friendship longing for understanding longing for quiet and calm We pray for a new day of healing. We pray for those who will spend tomorrow just like today searching for shelter searching for safety searching for employment We pray for a new day of healing. We pray for those who dare to dream of a different future hoping for peace where there is violence hoping for communication where there are cold shoulders hoping for resurrection where there is now only a tomb We pray for a new day of healing. In these ways, O God, we are pleading for something new, we are bursting with impatience because the status quo only satisfies if people aren’t hurting. And you, O God, are the God of the broken the God of the wounded. You are not a status-quo God. Isaiah, with all his confusing verb tenses, promises us and provokes us: “Arise, shine, for your light has come.” Bring us into your light, O God, where the day is ever-new, where your love is ever-lasting, where life is never-ending. We pray as Jesus taught us, so long ago, saying: Our Father . .
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 01:00:00 +0000
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