Prayers of the Church, 1.24.10

All hail and glory to you, great and wondrous God. All around us, through your creation, is evidence of your great love. All around us is evidence of your great deeds of power. Through your creation is revealed a power which no human can match -- a power that made people throughout the ages gasp in surprise and awe as they beheld it and which still makes us gasp when we realize the greatness of the power revealed. The vastness and complexity together are more than we can fully contemplate or appreciate.

As we attempt to contemplate your entire creation, we cannot fail to be amazed by your most precious of gifts: humankind. We are also often perplexed by the mysteries of human emotion and reasoning. They are more powerful than we know how to harness…or control.

You, O Lord, love us all as your children. You do not play favorites among us, but instead value every life as each one is a gift from you. Through our frailty, however, we are often not encumbered by your example. We look at those who are different from us, different in language or dialect, different in sex, in race, in stature, in wealth…and we begin to draw lines.

How can we, as heirs to the promise, as followers of Jesus, treat each other in ways that are so inconsistent with the gospel? How can we think of others as somehow of less value, of less import to the rest of the world and to you? This is nothing other than absolute abomination to the beauty of the creation you placed around us. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive us.

Loving God, you made us all to be your children.

Gracious Lord, you call us all to be one in Christ Jesus.

Father, we ask your blessings on our enemies. Forgive those who hate us because we’re different from them. Even more, Lord, forgive us when we hate those who are not like us.

In the silence, we come before you. We come before you with penitent hearts. We come before you with praises for answered prayer. We come before you as one family united in our love for you and your endless grace. Hear us.


We ask your blessings, God, on our neighbors at Pine Oaks Assisted Living Center. We ask health, comfort, and peace for the residents. We ask talent, wisdom, and compassion for the caregivers. We ask that we, and the local Christian community, see fit to be an active part in supporting the ministry at Pine Oaks and that all of these efforts please you.

And now, we pray together as Jesus, the great uniter, taught us to pray: