Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, April 14, 2024:
Loving Creator God,
Risen Christ,
Empowering Spirit –
from the beginning you have created and breathed life into all things,
you love and accompany your creation through the fullness of life,
even into death, and beyond death into more life,
life abundant and forever.
We are witnesses to your great love for the world in Jesus Christ,
and by the power of the Spirit of the Risen Christ,
we pray that we might embody that love
in the lives we live.
For your steadfast love and abounding grace,
we give you thanks and praise.
We pray for peace in a world filled with too much war.
We pray for the people of Gaza and Rafah,
as they continue to endure continued attack and suffering.
We pray for an immediate and lasting ceasefire,
for the restoration of access to the basic needs of human life,
water, food, medical care, freedom.
We pray that you will prevent further violent incursion into Rafah,
where those already refugees are in peril.
We pray for all those in harm’s way.
We pray for the return of hostages.
We pray this morning for all those caught up
in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
We pray for peace – peace with justice –
and for a world where all people can live free – and thrive.
We pray for an end to violence in our own nation –
and particularly for the dismantling of entrenched systems of American racism.
We pray for the refreshing and renewing of your Earth
which we have damaged to the point of systems collapse.
Teach us healing, sustaining ways of living,
in this time of climate unravelling.
We pray your healing, loving, saving grace for all those who are hurting.
For those who are unhoused, we pray for shelter.
For those who are hungry, food enough and more.
For those who are ailing in body or spirit, healing.
For those who mourn, comfort.
We give thanks for the departed saints,
who have graced our lives,
and who now dwell with you in the fullness of your love.
We give particular thanks for the life of Sandy Truex,
for all the ways that she graced this world,
for the music she sang with the choir,
for the tender mercy she brought to the care our Deacons extend,
for all the ways that Sandy, Royce, and their family
have been – and continue to be – part of our family.
We grieve the loss of her,
and at the same time,
we lean together into the sure promise
of Resurrection life that we have in Jesus Christ.
In the Spirit of the Risen Christ,
you draw us together in the communion of the saints,
into life lived in loving community with you and with each other.
And so, with all those who have ever called on you,
in every time and place, we join our voices with theirs,
praying together the prayer that Jesus taught, saying:
Our Father/Mother, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Photo credit: Jordy Chapman, used with permission via Unsplash