Prayers for the Week of March 28, 2021

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, March 28, 2021:

Bless us with foolishness, O God.

Foolishness,

so that we might see

the glory of the world you have made,

sun and stars and moon,

the greening of the hills,

the majesty of crashing waves

the warmth of community,

the tender touch of mercy;

so that we might see your glory,

and your goodness in this world,

planted more deeply than all that is wrong.

Bless us with foolishness, O God.

Foolishness, so that we might

speak and name out loud

the violence, injustice, and oppression in this world,

and our part in it,

speak it out loud,

when it makes us squirm,

when it means we must take a public risk for good,

speak it out loud;

so that we might stop

and change,

so that all your children may live free.

Bless us with foolishness, O God.

Foolishness,

so that we might

see the powers of this world as they are,

bankrupt, fraudulent, bereft,

and no longer fear;

so that we might trust in glimpses

of the power of your Resurrection,

even in Holy Week,

and choose to embody that power

in the lives we live,

and do those things

that others say cannot be done.

Loving, Sovereign God,

Where your children hunger and thirst,

may we bring them food and water.

Where your children are lonely,

may we companion each other.

Where gun violence ravages this nation,

may we and our leaders find

the courage and imagination, at long last,

to enact reasonable gun regulation

and transform our national culture of violence.

Where racist systems and leaders

try to suppress the right to vote,

may we resist and persist in the movement

that is reclaiming the vote for everyone.

Where your children are sick and ailing,

we pray for your healing power,

may it be embodied in our acts of tender care.

Where we have damaged and laid waste to creation,

may we repent, and change, and join the work of repair.

Connected in community,

with each other, and all creation,

all who have ever called your name,

we join our voices with theirs,

praying 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.