Pastoral Prayer, October 4, 2015 - First Congregational Church of Los Angeles

Holy God, forever faithful to your creation …

Your love is at work in all things for good … and toward the good we strive: the welfare of all creatures, great and small … the holy communion of all that lives and breaths upon the face of this earth.

But our hearts are heavy, O God.

We cry out on behalf of our nation and the community of Roseburg, Oregon … the horror of yet another shooting … and how many more times, dear God, will we have to say, “yet another shooting,” how many more deaths will we have to count, how many more shattered families to support, until our nation comes to its senses about violence and guns and the rhetoric of hate that fills our souls with wretched thoughts and compels some to take up deadly ways.

Our minds are whirling, O God - our own Garden of Gethsemane: we don’t want to be here, anymore than Jesus did … we say: “let this cup pass from me” … we want peace and quiet, stillness and calm … yes, give that to us here, O God, in this gracious place and time … but we’re you’re people here and now … no one else to make the decisions, no one else to bear the burdens, and care for your earth. 

Give us a few moments of respite from the trials and tumult of the world; feed us, we pray, with the bread of heaven and refresh us with the cup of blessing … and then send us, we pray, as you sent Elijah: back to our world, to our tasks, to the hard work of salvation - to be an offering of praise and goodness, for the wellbeing of the world. 

On this World Communion Sunday, O LORD, we catch a glimpse of what can be … a world gathered around a Table, a table big enough for everyone, set with enough bread and drink to satisfy the deepest hunger and the most pressing thirst.

All around the world, dear God, people gather in the name of their gods and goddesses, uttering prayers and seeking life in an endless variety of tongues and traditions … we give thanks for every bit of it … 

Because we’re all in this together, dear God, frail and fragile as we are, given to impulses sometimes less than good, dreaming dreams of a better world … learning how to use our abilities, O God, never to conquer, and always to console; never to abuse, but only to enhance … never to degrade, yet always and forever to bless.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen!