Every Sunday we come to God, and God comes to us. But is He a formal God or a familiar God? Is He a “Thou” or a “You”? And is He a “He,” or might He be a “She”? Upon such questions shall we be focusing our attention this morning. In the meantime, we continue the divine-human encounter in our praise and thanksgiving. Worship is where God is regularly met by those who truly seek Him. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
We praise and thank Thee, O Thou who art the creator of the ever-expanding universe, for Thy graciousness in deigning to come to us, who are but minute specks of Thy creative purposes. We fancy ourselves to be masters of this planet, which to some degree we are, but we far too seldom remember that we are earthly masters only because Thou art the sole Master of the Universe, and we hold this position, if indeed we truly do hold it, only because it is Thou who hast given it to us. Help us to discern our rightful relationship to Thee and our rightful relationship to this small orb of creation that we call Planet Earth. Make us proper stewards of this atom-sized bit of the totality of Thy majestic creation.
We pray for all politicians who currently are going through the grueling and mind-numbing process of running for any elective office. Grant them perseverance and persistence for the race, whatever may be its outcome. Bless the electorate, and instill in us a willingness to try to understand the issues and to vote accordingly and appropriately. We pray for all those whose vocations put them in harm’s way. Grant them courage and tenacity for their work, and we pray for their safety in the performance of their duties. We pray for theologians and philosophers whose life’s work is to study Thy nature and being, and who seek to impart their knowledge to others whose life’s work inevitably limits their ability fully to understand the philosophers and theologians.
Lord God, we readily acknowledge our eagerness to comprehend Thee more fully, but we also confess our limitations in the pursuit. Because it is so hard for us to perceive Thee as Thou art, we particularly thank Thee for Jesus, the one among us who has made Thy reality more truly grasped by us than anyone else in the history of the world. We praise Thee that as Christians, Jesus Christ has opened our minds and hearts to Thine essence as no one else has been able to do. Help us, in him, to discover Thee more completely and therefore to serve Thee more effectively. Because Jesus is our door into Thy kingdom, we pray all our prayers in his name. And now we pray together as Jesus taught his initial followers, saying together, Our Father….