Sunday Prayers – January 25, 2009

We’re glad to be in your house this morning, O God.
To hear again the stories of Jesus …
To renew our promises to you and to one another …
To start all over again …
Or maybe to start for the first time … to follow Jesus our LORD.

We pray in a time of crisis, O God.
Our nation teeters on the brink of financial failure …
And for many today, as we pray,
They’ve already slipped over the edge.
The pink slip on the desk …
Bills piling up …
Foreclosure, or the threat of it.
For so many, O LORD, hard times are here …

We pray for our leadership.
For our President and his family.
For our members of Congress …
For Democrats and Republicans …
They have a lot on their plate …
To keep them awake at night …
May your Spirit help them.

We pray in time of global wariness …
Changes and shifts in the balance of power …
Peoples on the move …
For those of over 50, O God, it’s a very different world.
For those under 30, it’s the only world they’ve known – a world of many colors and many tongues; a world of many religions and philosophies, all bumping up against one another … an internet world, of text messaging and instant news …

But God, it’s still your world.
You are still at work in all things …
Your Holy Spirit strives with our spirit …
To give us vision and hope,
To point the way
You are still the God who pays us a visit in the cool of the day …
You are the God always born anew, in some Bethlehem, in the corners of our soul … in places unexpected … in times we cannot understand … you are still the God of mercy and kindness.

We pray, O God, in a time of judgment.
When greed and violence have come to naught.
When excess and pride have run their course.
When war and rumors of war have wearied the soul.
When godless dreams and self-serving interests have brought us nothing but chaff and straw.
When religion itself has proved shallow and wanting.

Your hand is upon the nations of the world, O God.
Your hand is heavy, as it should be.
To counsel and to correct.
To reveal the hollowness of the heart.
To undress the soul and reveal its poverty.
To awaken dormant dreams of a better world for all.
To restore our balance and rekindle the fires of justice.

We pray, O God, to seek your grace and kindness.
Not merely that we would be comfortable, but that we might be conformed – conformed to the image of your Son, Jesus our LORD.
We pray, O God, to have less of ourselves and more of you.
We pray, O God, that in hard times, we’ll keep our eyes upon you, and help others do the same.
We pray, O God, for you are, our rock and our redeemer.

In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done …

Prayers … Sunday, January 18, 2009

O LORD our God, how we thank you …
That you have found us …
And made us a part of Christ …

It’s always a miracle of grace … that we should be here!

We are grateful for all things great and small … for you are at work in all things … in the bright and the beautiful; in the sad and the bitter … at work for good, and we give thanks … as you mold our lives and establish our character – that we might discover along the ways of our life the glories of your love and the wonder of your ways.

We give thanks today for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who saw a need and rose to the occasion … who faltered at times, but didn’t give up … who faced untold threats and stayed the course … who prayed to you with joy and with tears … who wrote and preached a consistent message of equality and justice for all.

We give thanks for all such folks, some known to the world, and some known but to you – folks who see a need and fill it … who pray and write … love and lead … help and hope … changing the world with their courage and their convictions …

We pray for our nation today as we prepare to inaugurate our 44th president, Barak Hussein Obama … we pray for his wife, Michelle, and his two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
We pray for Joe and Jill Biden and their children …
We pray for our legislators and our judges …
And for the wellbeing of our nation …

To marshal our resources and firm up our resolve, O LORD …
To take big steps to heal the wounds and restore our economy …
To care for one another as our Founding Fathers and Mothers envisioned … in this new land … a haven for the world … from sea to shining sea.

We pray, as well, O LORD, for Covenant on the Corner …
Our part of the church of Jesus Christ …

We thank you for what has been in our 60 years …
For what is …
And what shall be …

O LORD our God, we would be faithful to you …
As you have been faithful to us …

Pour out upon us the full measure of your Holy Spirit …
We cannot do this on our own …
Wouldn’t want to do it on our own …
For in your light, we see light …
By your grace, we are found.

We bless and praise you, O God,
In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ …
Who taught us to pray, saying,
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done …

Prayer- January 4, 2009

In the turning of the page, O God, a fresh start …
A new year upon us …
A chance to review the way it’s been …
And maybe craft a few new ideas for how we’re going to live.

We thank you, O God, that we’re here …
It’s good to be alive,
To have friends and family …
To love and be loved …
To have a church called Covenant…
To have a job …
To be retired …
To have bread on the table and a place to lay our head …

Help us, we pray, O God, for the year to come …
To be people of faith … to put ourselves more completely into your hands … to become better acquainted with Jesus and to follow more clearly …
To believe deeply and fervently in the spiritual character of life … that life is more than just food and drink, and the passing of time like sand through our fingers …
To see the sacred in every moment … the sacred in every human being … to see your son Jesus in the least of the least …

Help us, we pray, to be women and men of hope …
Because you are at work in all things …
And all things work together for good …
When others see only darkness, help us to let our light shine.
When others are discouraged, give us patience to walk slowly with them on their own dark road …
When the angry voices of our world shout loudly, give us words of peace and forgiveness …
When the news brings so much sadness, energize us with hope, O God, so that we, your people, can apply ourselves creatively and hopefully to the resolution of the world’s ills …
And for all those groups who work for peace … who work on behalf of hope …
Who light a candle in the dark …
Who offer a helping hand …
Who stand beside the poor and the oppressed …
Who challenge the corrupt values of power and greed …
O God, we thank you for the grace at work in our world … and the hope we have in Jesus our LORD.

Help us, we pray, to be a people of great love …
To love the sunrise and the sounds of music …
To love the wind in the leaves and a fresh cup of coffee …
To love with action as well as words …
To love life with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind …
To love kindness, practice justice, and walk humbly with you …
To love you and to love one another as Jesus does … for he is love, and to love is see you, and to see you is to love …

To be people, O God, of faith, hope and love …
For the year ahead …
For 2009 …
For all that shall be …

In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done …