Pastoral Prayer, June 14, 2015

Pastoral Prayer - June 14, 2015

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles

Vast are the heavens, O God.

Glorious is the earth upon which we live.

Remarkable in all ways is the carnival of life that sings and dances across the ages … all creatures, great and small … the curve of a gull’s wing and its raucous cry as it wheels through the morning sky … from the tiniest bug that bites us to the mighty creatures of forest and prairie … each, O LORD, a living being crafted by your hand in the eons of time and the mysteries of biology.

We are humbled and blessed by the world around us, O God … and amazed that it’s ours to batter or to bless … to manage well is our prayer, as you have invited us to name the animals with care and to dress and replenish the earth … to exercise the care and love with which you created the heavens and the earth in the original moment, when your Spirit moved over the face of the deep and light shattered the darkness.

Grant us, we pray, the encouragement of your Holy Spirit this morning, that we might catch our breath, find hope anew, and leave here ready to embrace the times in which we live: to learn all that we can, to redouble efforts as peace-makers in a world of too much war, and to regard well the lilies of the field and the ravens of the air.

To this end, O God, we pray for the welfare of the church here and around the world … that the gospel be preached with integrity and intelligence and kindness, that the church would reflect the very welcome and affirmation of Jesus Christ our LORD.

We pray for the welfare of all houses of worship … for synagogue, temple and mosque … for rabbis, monks and imams … for all who lift up the hopes of humankind in prayer and deed … and especially, we pray this day, for the Guibord Center and its efforts to build bridges between the great religions of the world, to lessen the tensions of misunderstanding and to create trust and appreciation for your manifold glory, O God, the many pathways you’ve created, revealed in every sacred text and in every prayer.

We pray for leaders of industry, O God … leaders of government around the world … into whose hands, O God, you have placed great responsibility. May the demons of profitability be challenged by the angels of responsibility … may the madness of greed be tempered by the powers of mercy … may the interests of the few be supplanted by the needs of the many.

O God, we pray, with heart and mind, body and soul, giving thanks that our prayers are heard, our needs acknowledged, our sorrows taken up into your great heart … as your providential care weaves mercy and kindness into the folds of time and into the very fabric of lives, working in all things for good.

And so we say Dear God: you are worthy to receive all that we are and all that we have … for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever, world without end. Amen!