Call to Worship – November 27, 2016

Our nation and the entire world continue to observe the preparations of our President-Elect as he goes about the vital process of selecting people to serve in his administration. Meanwhile we as citizens have our own inevitably varied thoughts on Donald J. Trump and on how he is going about this process. Through it all, all of us look to God for His guidance, grace, and support. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship the God who stands above, beneath, and within everything ever faced by any of His countless children.

 

Pastoral Prayer

 

            O Thou who art the God of all the nations, and whose power and grace lead all Thy people through all the vicissitudes of human existence, we thank Thee for Thy presence with the American people in the countless issues which have confronted us through our long history as a democracy. We praise Thee for Thy commitment to us regardless of the uncertainty of our commitment to Thee, and for Thy steadfastness in the midst of our inconsistencies and inconstancies. Teach us how fully to depend on Thee even as it is necessary for us also to depend largely on ourselves.

 

            We pray for our President-Elect as he goes about the crucial actions of preparing to establish a new administration. Bless all whom he considers for the several thousand positions he must fill, and especially bless all those who are actually approved by him or by Congress to assume those positions. We pray for all the citizens of our nation: those who went to the polls in the election and those who did not; those who are vitally interested in the political process and those who are not; those who care deeply what happens in our political life together and those who do not. Despite our many differences and disputes, all of us are still Americans, and we pray that we may continue to be one nation, under Thy guidance, indivisible, and that liberty and justice may be sought for everyone who lives in our nation, however it is that we came to live here.

 

            We pray once again for police officers, who risk their very lives in the performance of what usually seem like very mundane duties; for everyone everywhere who moves in to assist people whose lives are devastated by natural or human-caused disasters; for those who must bear arms on behalf of their governments; for the people whose positions force them to make decisions which inevitably shall not meet with unanimous support by all for whom those decisions are made; for educators and business leaders and financial officials and government bureaucrats; and for anyone whose profession requires them to take any actions on behalf of the general public. Grant to all of them confidence of heart, depth of thought, and resilience of spirit. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Christ, who taught his followers and us to pray together, saying, Our Father….