We gather in praise of a God whose vision of reality is so much greater than our own, whose love for all His many children is so much deeper than our own, whose comprehension of the world and universe is so much more vast than our own. We naively imagine that our religious thinking can encompass Him, but He benignly overlooks our naivete’. Nevertheless by His grace He prompts us to come to Him. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
O Thou who art our Creator and the Creator of everyone and everything that exists, we praise Thee for the immensity of Thy loving purposes in creating anything at all. We believe that Thou art completely self-contained, and need nothing, and yet Thou didst set stars and moons and planets in motion, and our star and our planet give us life. We confess we do not ultimately know why Thou hast done what Thou hast done, but we thank Thee for it nonetheless. Instead of feeling pride or self-satisfaction because we exist, grant us humility in the indisputable knowledge that we might never have existed.
We pray that Thou wouldst help us to accept other people whose thinking and beliefs are far different from what we think and believe, and whose way of life is quite literally a world apart from where and how we live. We ask Thee to assist us in living more charitably and peaceably with people whose cultures or political or religious systems are also very different from our own. Keep us from attacking one another over differences, when there is so much that unites us, if we would only open our eyes to the many common features we share as human beings.
We pray for a broadened appreciation of the entire world community. We are properly concerned for people whose lives have been torn apart by ongoing conflicts,. but we also confess that we may already have forgotten other people whose existence was shattered by other disasters which occurred longer ago, and who now get no coverage in the news. Fully connect us to Thee, O God, that we may become more fully connected to one another. These things we ask in the name of Jesus, who has been our primary means of knowing Thee and Thy love. Now we pray as Jesus taught his followers, saying, Our Father….