Each Sunday we gather in worship and praise of God and Jesus, with whom we have a lasting relationship of faith. Today we shall be thinking about the nature of climate change, and of Hurricane Ian. We are grateful to God that we were spared, but we shall pray for the many thousands who have permanently lost their homes, and for all the others who have suffered severe and costly damage. Therefore with relieved confidence, let us worship the God who created and sustains the Earth.
Pastoral Prayer
Who is like Thee, O God? Who, out of all the beings everywhere in the universe, is like Thee? Thou art completely self-sufficient, and nothing that exists is necessary to sustain Thee or Thy divine being. When we are at our most objective, we realize that nothing we are and nothing we have is in any way required to complete Thee or Thy purposes. Nevertheless, Thou hast created all the stars and planets, and our star, the Sun, and our planet, the Earth. We praise Thee for having gone through a great deal of divine activity simply to make everything in existence, when it seems to be of little or no observable benefit to Thee. We thank Thee for being alive, Lord God, particularly when we believe that nothing else nor we ourselves would exist without Thee.
We ask Thee to assist us as we attempt to make our existence worthy of Thy creative purposes. Help us to make our lives matter. Make us better parents and grandparents, and better friends and neighbors. We pray Thee to utilize to Thy best designs whatever skills and abilities we have, so that the world may be a better place because we have been here. And when we fail to fulfill Thy will for us, we ask for Thy forgiveness, and also for the will to try again to make improvements the next time. If we can help somebody along the way, O God, then our living will not be in vain.
On this day we especially pray for all those have been thrown into sudden despondency because of the ravages of the most recent hurricane. Uphold them by Thy spirit in the midst of the despair they feel. We pray for those whose financial losses have catapulted them into gnawing uncertainty about the future. Bless all those volunteers and others who are working long hours to help people they do not know to try to get their homes and their lives back together. When we realize that once again, as so many times before, we have not been affected by a huge storm which might also have torn our lives apart, we wonder deeply about nature in all its beneficence and fury, thinking about how Thou art involved in this, if at all. Grant us faith to sustain us whatever comes our way, and by Thy guidance, may we be agents of mercy to our neighbors as are those who have gone to assist people in need all across Florida. These things we pray in Jesus’ name. Now as Jesus taught us, we pray together, saying, Our Father….