1.15.23 Prayers of Church & Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Eternal God, we give thanks for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … we celebrate, his work and vision, his courage and honesty … the family who supported him, those who worked with him … his voice, a clarion call to justice, a message for a troubled nation stumbling in its own history … a nation plagued with pride, O God, unable to tell the whole truth … 

Dear God, we give thanks for all those who continue the work, who raise the call of Christ, to seek first the Kingdom of God … who point the way to healing and health, wholeness and hope … all who declare the Gospel, loud and clear: “Here is the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here is the path, here is the right and good.” May their voices never be stilled, and may the ears of our nation be opened all the more to hear the truth of peace and justice.

Holy God, we give thanks for churches, great and small, churches that embody the love of Christ, churches that stand firm for the great truths of faith, hope, and love … to welcome all to the Table of Christ … to welcome all to the waters of baptism … to give freely to the world what you, dear God, have so freely given to the Church of Jesus Christ, and to each one of us - the salvation of our souls, and our daily bread.

We pray now for our loved ones … for family and friends …

And for ourselves, O God, many a burden upon our heart … things that distress us, frighten us, shame us, bewilder us … O LORD, our God, we are so complicated, but you know us through and through, your love for us is without end … in the end, O God, we are yours, for this life, and for the life to come …

All of this, 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, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.