In his most famous play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare said, “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!” Today we shall be thinking about humanity, about human beings, about you and me. Who are we, and how did we turn out as we are? As we do every Sunday, we gather to sing praise to God, but on this Sunday we particularly sing praise to God for His grace to us in creating us!
Pastoral Prayer
Loving God, we thank Thee for the privilege of being able to turn to Thee in prayer, thanking Thee for all Thy blessings, praising Thee for Thy goodness toward us, imploring Thy forgiveness for our willful breaking of Thy holy law, and seeking Thy guidance as we attempt anew to become better and more conscientious followers of Thee and of Thy Son Jesus. Without Thee we would not exist. With Thy spirit moving within us, our existence can become a light to a darkened world. Use us for Thy purposes, and keep us from living only for our own purposes.
We pray for the world, in all its physical fragility. We remember three young men who have died in car accidents within days of one another in our own community, and how devastated their families and friends feel. Headlines remind us of tornados and warfare, of political upheavals and sweeping social and cultural changes. If we did not realize it before, Lord God, we realize it again and again how insubstantial are the foundations we build for ourselves, and how immovable are the foundations we can build on Thee and on Thy Word. Help us, in the swirling uncertainties of life, always to remember that Thou art the rock upon whom our lives must be built.
We thank Thee for the gift of one another, for the entire reality that is the human race --- past, present, and future. We praise Thee for the countless numbers of people whose artistic gifts have graced our lives, in paintings, poetry, music, sculpture, and literature. Because all good comes ultimately from Thee, we thank Thee for Thy goodness which is demonstrated in the good works of those whose lives have shaped the world for the better. We are grateful for humanitarian impulses which inspire people on behalf of people in great need, for humanists who sing the praises of our species, for the entire broad range of human beings all over the world and all through its history. Lead us, who sing songs of praise to Thee, also to join in the Hymn to Humanity. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, who lived his life on behalf of others, regardless of who the others were. Now we pray as Jesus taught his first followers, saying, Our Father….