We pray today, O God, for folks struggling to find themselves … hoping to find a little love along the way, some sense of purpose beyond the self … seeking your face, O God, though they may not know it …
We’re all slightly lost, LORD.
We wonder what it’s all about.
Death bewilders us …
We try to be brave, whatever that means.
We’ve all disappointed ourselves, LORD.
Not to mention others.
The economy, O LORD, is on our minds.
Some have suffered considerable declines in income …
Some have lost jobs and homes …
Some are worrying themselves into ill-health, or delaying a visit to the doctor.
We’ve all felt the pinch of the times, O LORD.
Hard times for many …
Troubling times for us all …
We pray for our President and his family …
We pray for those who counsel him …
We pray for the members of congress …
For the courts of the land …
For mayors and governors …
For corporate heads and boardroom directors …
For Wall Street investors and money managers …
In this season of Lent, O God,
Help us, we pray, to take seriously the message of Lent …
That Christ suffered for our sins …
The righteous for the unrighteous …
A message slightly disturbing, LORD.
A message that touches us uncomfortably.
Our world, O LORD, has mostly done away with sin …
We call it misjudgment or simple error …
But it’s more than that, LORD.
It’s worse than that.
Our willfulness, our relentless self-interest … the small sins we commit against one another – the larger social sins in which we unwittingly participate … the dark materials of mind and heart!
But help us be not afraid, LORD, for in your love, much grace to be found … help for the lost, comfort for the frightened, healing for broken hearts, and forgiveness for sinners.
Help us to turn anew to Christ.
To look to him for help and healing.
To be more than church members, but members of Christ himself.
Help us, we pray, in this Lenten season,
To ponder the cross … to stand before it and see our complicity in his death … it is our sin that still wields the lash, our sin that thrusts upon his shoulders the cross, our sin that crowns him with a crown of thorns, our sin that drives the nails … our sin that buries him and rolls a stone in place.
LORD, we’d rather not deal with this.
It’s someone else’s problem, isn’t it?
Surely, not mine.
As Peter said at the Table, “Surely, not I, Lord!”
LORD, help us to deal thoughtfully with Lent, for the health of our soul … that in knowing our need, we might see the glory of Christ all the more … for he suffered for our sin … to bring us to you.
In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …
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