Pastoral Prayer for September 11, 2016 (inspired by the Parable of the Lost Sheep and Remembrance of 9/11/01)

Holy God:

Once again, we come before you in humility and joy, offering our hearts, our lives, our prayer to you.

We thank you for the love we have found in your son Jesus Christ, who took flesh and died, who rose from the grave on the third day, because, as he said, he came to seek and to save the lost.  We have been lost—we have known what it means to be completely unable to save ourselves, completely without direction, trying to make our way in the world and making everything worse through out own efforts.  We have known what it means to take our lives apart with our own hands, to hurt the ones who love us the most.

And we know what it means to feel the grip of your grace grabbing ahold of us, drawing us to your side, turning us back to truth, to wholeness, to sanity, to love, to joy.  We who claim your name have experienced the tremendous joy of being found.

The hymn writer confessed as we confess to you, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” We, too, have been prone to wander once again.  So we ask you to find us through your grace today. draw us to yourself.  may we feel the joy we found at the first.  

If anyone here today has yet to taste of the joy of your grace, we ask that you would reach out to that one this morning.  We ask, Lord, that no one would leave this service without having been born anew through a gift of your grace.

Today, Father, this nation and the nations of the world remember a dark and tragic day fifteen years ago in which the human family was torn asunder by an evil act. Ever since, we have, as a global community, wandered from you in many ways. None of us could have imagined on that day the rage, the violence, the killing and misunderstanding that would come.  we are still trying to figure out how to put things back together.  We don’t know how to stabilize the world, to return to a world without hatred and fear between nations, regions, religions, and political opinions. One evil act seems to have spawned one outpouring of hate after another, a cycle of recrimination and untruth.  Our efforts to fix it have failed. And so, Lord, we cry out for mercy. Bring peace to our world. Heal the wounds of our world.  May we be ready to allow you to be our shepherd.

Amen.

Pastoral Prayer for September 4, 2016

Holy God:

We thank you for the love of Jesus Christ.  We praise you today because we have found life in him.  He has made us new people.  He has made us family with each other .  He has given hope to our world.  In sending Jesus to the cross, you put to death death itself, and all that is lifeless and broken.  In raising him to new life, you opened up the beginning of all things being made new, everything in heaven and on earth being restored.

We openly admit to you, Lord, that living in this world is often difficult.  We have come today believing in our heads that what Christ has done is true and real.  And yet, all that we face causes us to struggle to have a mind and heart to live as people who trust what Christ’s work has done.  We believe that he has conquered sin and death, and yet we are weighed down by the effects of sin and death.  We struggle to live as free people.  We struggle to overcome despair.  We struggle to overcome discouragement.  We forget who we are.

And so, our living is often halfhearted.  We live with one foot in heaven and one foot in the ways of the world.  We try to live Christ’s way, but we are so used to the old way that we find ourselves constantly compromising, equivocating.

Today, we ask that you would give us new life.  Give us fresh vision.  Overwhelm us with your spirit.  Renew us. Restore us.

We give our lives entirely to you.  Have us as your own. Every choice, every dime, every moment, every relationship.  body, mind, soul, spirit.  The good, the bad the ugly.  Our businesses, our children, our marriages.  Our thoughts, our dreams.  Our hurts and sorrows.  Our gifts and our shame.  Have us entirely.  Make us entirely a people whose heart and life is entirely dedicated, entirely consumed, entirely shaped by Jesus.

Amen.