Call to Worship – June 26, 2016

This past Thursday perhaps the most consequential vote of the past century was rendered by the British people.  It is impossible to predict all the ramifications of Brexit.  America and Americans shall certainly be affected.  In the midst of what the Germans call Sturm und Drang, storm and stress, we are grateful to God we can gather together in worship, hearing His word, listening for His voice, and being granted the equanimity to live through whatever life hands us.  Let us therefore, with confidence, worship God.

 
Pastoral Prayer

 

            In the midst of a great uncertainty into which the world has been thrown, O God, we give Thee ceaseless thanks and praise that we can be certain of Thy presence, whatever comes our way.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the people of Britain, whose close vote on a huge issue has determined their course for the next few years or decades.  We pray also for everyone else in the European Union: for those who try to govern it, for those who support it, as well as for those who oppose it.  When choices with enormous consequences are made, we thank Thee for Thy presence with us in the unfolding results of those choices.  Enable us to trust more fully in Thee when our trust in one another is severely tested.

 

            In the wave of populism sweeping though many nations, including our own, we pray for the people most adversely affected by that populism: immigrants, recently naturalized citizens in many nations whose ethnic origin makes them unpopular to many of their fellow citizens, migrant workers, and the children of ethnic groups who evoke anger and resentment among people whose forbears have lived in various countries for generations.  We especially pray for people who fear that life where they have been living has become either intolerable or impossible, and who are willing to risk death or imprisonment to leave home for the uncertainty of life as refugees in countries of which they know little or nothing.  Enable people of compassion to provide hope and safety to those who feel hopeless and completely bereft of personal safety.

 

            We thank Thee for the safety and security which most of us feel, which we accept ultimately as a gift from Thee and from Thy boundless goodness.   We pray for anyone we know who currently is facing a crisis of health or personal disruption or spiritual upheaval.  Help us to become bridges for them over their troubled waters.  Use us, Lord God, for Thy purposes.  Make us instruments of Thy peace.  May we become better tools in Thy hands for the building up of Thy kingdom on the earth.  We pray these things in the name of him whom we believe to be earthly king of us all, Jesus Christ.  And now we pray together as he taught his original disciples, saying, Our Father….