Eternal God:
Be merciful to us, we pray, that we might work all the more to heal your creation and bring
Speak truth to us, and call us to responsibility. Save us from retreating into a world too small for the gospel to breath; help us to think beyond the boundaries of caution; save us, we pray, from timidity, that we might speak out when creation suffers at the hands of those who love but themselves … blinded by their own privilege and power.
Remind us, dear God, that time has its limits, your mercy, when defied, defiled and rejected, becomes a healing wrath that demands an accounting of the nations - history, can bend toward destruction and desolation, just as it can bend toward redemption and wholeness. Remind us, dear God, that judgment comes to those nations who choose power over peace, and sacrifice countless lives upon the altars of greed.
Help us, we pray, to pay attention … give us minds and hearts ready to bear the burdens of care … even as we pray for the Holy Spirit to give us comfort and rest along the way.
We pray for the nations of the Pacific Rim - for China and the Koreas, for Japan and the Philippines … we pray for Ukraine and the NATO countries; we pray for Russia and the Middle East. We pray for the world, O God, because it is your world, created in love, created with hope, entrusted to our care. Help us, we pray, to be those who add to the love and deepen the hope. That in the end, it will be said of us: “They were faithful to the things that counted.”
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.
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