Prayers of the People – February 15, 2009

We are grateful, O God, for the gift of life:
To love and be loved,
To cherish and to hold,
To forgive and be forgiven,
To know something of Jesus our LORD … to be a part of the church, to lift up the light of hope, and to make this a better world.

We pray today for the Rev. Dr. Harold Kidd, our new moderator of the Presbytery of the Pacific … and we pray for the Presbytery staff:
The Rev. Linda Culbertson
The Rev. Steve Smith
The Rev. Bill Hazen
Kathy Porter
Doug Rozendal
Veronica Sanchez-Morales
Betty Simen
The Rev. Heidi Worthen Gamble

We pray for Christians everywhere … a myriad of voices and styles – store front churches in Chicago and a thatched roof shed in Haiti – a spired cathedral in London and a New England white clapboard – fancy to plain; small and large; sometimes silly and sanctimonious, sometimes harsh and judgmental, sometimes proud and pompous, sometimes grand and glorious, good and gracious, wise and welcoming – but mostly, LORD, just human beings whom you have touched with grace – trying to figure it out – wondering what it means to follow Jesus.

We pray, O God, for our President and for Congress and the courts of the land … we pray for our ambassadors and for our military … we pray for peace and we pray for the healing of the nations.

We pray for the millions in our land who have lost job and home … who struggle to keep bread on the table and a roof over their heads …

Help us to marshal our resources for the well-being of our people – to pay attention to the least of these in our midst – we pray, O God, that we may have your eyes and your love – your compassion and your purpose –

Fill us, we pray with the Spirit of Christ and the passion of the prophets – to challenge the self-serving powers within all of us and within our land, to challenge the self-righteous instincts of religion – to push and to prod, to be real and to be kind, to be thoughtful and merciful – to be a light for our world and the salt of the earth.

And in your mercy, O God, help us we pray: we face problems that perplex us, tasks for which we feel unequal. Our inner lives are often a battlefield where faith and fear contend. We see in our lives failure that only your mercy can pardon, and possibilities of good that only your grace can bring to fulfillment. In this and all the matters of life, dear God, we need your help.

In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name …