Holy God:
We give you thank for the gift of your Son, who has given us new life, who has offered us a new way of life. We thank you that through our shared love of the living Christ, we have become true family with one another. Jesus, you said that to know you is to have eternal life. And so, teach us today what it means to live in the fullness of that life, to walk as a heavenly people, to live with heaven in our hearts, to share the eternal life of the eternal kingdom in all our living in this world. Help us to tread lightly on this good earth, to remember where we have come from and where we will go to, to taste the eternal banquet even now as we live this life in living loving relationship with you and with your people with whom we will live forever.
You have blessed us to be a blessing. We thank you for the gift of living in a good land. On this inaugural week, we offer intercession for the new president, Donald Trump, his family, his administration and all who advise him. We pray for our federal legislature, especially those newly elected. Shape all of their hearts, guide their thinking, help them to have just courage and compassionate sensitivity, to care and advocate for all citizens, to speak with wisdom, clarity, and discretion, to act with the highest ethical standards and rise above even the appearance of corruption. We also ask that you would bless our outgoing president, Barack Obama, and his family. May he feel the gratitude of the nation for his service and may you bless and guide him in his service to come.
Forgive us, holy God, when we have succumbed to the temptation to enter into the increasingly uncharitable partisanship of our culture. Help us to rise above, to speak the truth in love, to listen more than we speak, to find solidarity with those who are different than us. May we never give in to the contempt so often expressed in our culture. May we always remember that we serve a Lord who commanded us to love our enemies and demonstrated his love to us while we were yet sinners and rebels to your kingdom.
Amen.
