O God
Of humility and purpose, you call us to walk with you
On dusty pathways
Rock strewn landscapes,
The unknown
And the way brought forth by Jesus.
It has never been an easy world to live in. We humans have fought to survive, to live, to
have power, and we keep hurting one another.
Your way is unexpected, and unknown. Something of an oddity in the face of our human
understanding of what it means to be on top.
Your way calls for humility and purpose.
May you grant this to each of us.
Your way calls for obedience;
An obedience to a chartered purpose of love, care, compassion, forgiveness. Yet we
barely understand what those words and the actions of those words mean.
Yet you show us again and again the way of wholeness. May we have eyes to see.
As your gathered people in this place, we pray for the whole world.
That is a big order, but we pray for the end of war and the need to pursue death to gain
control. All over the world, weapons from machetes to smart bombs are used to kill and
subdue, for thrones and money. Have mercy on us, O God.
In our own nation, our worst behavior has risen to the top, becoming a normal that is
self-serving and mean spirited. That is not your way. Have mercy on us, O God.
In our own small ways, may we be agents of peace, compassion, maturity, growth. May
we exemplify the power that matures our understanding, that grows our own
development, that deepens our spiritual wisdom, that encourages our stamina to work
and live for what is right and good.
We pray for all of us who are facing illness and joys, loss and celebration, concerns and
relief. For this is what it means to be human. That we live complex lives that hold it all at
the same time, and we do so together: Holding one another’s burdens, holding one
another’s hands.
We pray for all who do not yet know they belong, or where they belong, and feel alone.
May we be ready with an embrace that includes and makes way for more.
O Jesus, our companion and savior,
We enter this week, aware in remembering, your entry, anger, teaching, service,
resolute knowing, your physical death and all that comes next. Which is mystery. It is an
oddity, and we barely understand it.
Give us the courage to kneel and hold the hard working calloused feet of a neighbor
and stranger, literally and figuratively, humbly and lovingly, caring for the accumulated
dirt of simply living hard lives.
Give us the courage to open our tables to all, widening the invitation, knowing it is your
invitation, that all would be fed.
Give us the mindfulness to break bread and share in the cup of commitment, that all
belong and are welcome in your name.
And when the sun rises on the third day, may we not forget all we’ve learned.
We pray in your name Jesus, the name that proclaims that God is all around us, that
peace is the work of your kindom, that wonderful is the council of the Divine, that
almighty means all embracing. Amen.