We are a people of privilege, not because of who we are, but because of where and when we live. Of all our privileges, one of the greatest is to be able to gather freely to worship the God who calls us into His presence, and who daily redeems us by His grace. It is to honor Him and to sing His praises that we come together each Sunday. Therefore let us, with Christian confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
When we consider who we are in relationship to who Thou art, O God, we see ourselves to be like ants before an elephant, or like a small meteorite before the entire universe. How great Thou art, and how small we are. Nonetheless, it is Thou who hast created us, and in Thine infinite love and wisdom, Thou hast chosen to relate Thyself to us. We praise Thee for Thy mercy in even acknowledging our existence, let alone sending messengers on our behalf to alert us to Thy loving purposes. Help us, who are so far below Thee, nonetheless to affirm Thy willingness to come to us by many means, but especially through Jesus, whom we call the Christ. Enable us to live each day in the awareness that in the very fact of our existence, we are to live for Thee and Thy kingdom.
We thank Thee for all the ways Thou hast made Thyself known to all of humanity through all the time humans have lived on the earth. Although most of us have been raised in Christian homes and among a population that is at least nominally Christian, and therefore we perhaps naturally assume the primacy of Christianity, yet we trust Thou hast also moved the hearts and minds of other peoples who have been born into the cultures of other religions, and who also feel a unique kinship to Thee. In a time of growing animosity between religions, make each of us more open to all the ways Thy spirit moves in the midst of all people. Help us to find common ground with one another, despite our obvious and sometimes divisive differences.
On this day we pray for all the people who have been born with sexual identities and inclinations different from our own. We acknowledge that most of us were born with sexual identities which clearly have rendered us male or female. But we know that some people are drawn to people of the same sex, and others to people of both sexes, and there are still others who grow to realize that the sex with which they born is not the sex that they truly are. In all the difficulties these brothers and sisters face compared to the rest of us, we ask Thee to assist both them and us to imagine a world in which all are equally welcome, regardless of sexual orientation. These things we ask in the name of Jesus, whose life and teachings have led us into a confident and we trust unbreakable relationship with Thee. Now we pray as Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father….