Eternal God, thank you for bringing us here today … your grace at work in our hearts, your love pulling and tugging us along the way, moving us throughout the day … speaking to us in hushed tones, gentle and warm … and sometimes, O God, you have to shout at us, shake us by the scruff of the neck, because we can be a stubborn lot.
We thank you, O LORD, for those who were here in times past, who poured our their hope and energy to build a church on Lake Avenue … with a tower reaching high … a tower to bless the earth and all its creatures, a tower to point the way, to lift up fallen spirits, to encourage the dispirited … holy God, preserve us, we pray, with your great love, sustain your work here in our midst … forgive our sins, our faults, our failings … empower our dreams, and grant us what’s needed for ministry on Lake Avenue.
LORD God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, we give thanks for the Rev. Harlan Redmond, for his family, for the church he serves, for his dreams, his hopes, his ambitions; for all who guided him and guarded him throughout the journey, to this very moment in time … may your Holy Spirit watch over him, may your love guide and guard him, may mercy be his strength, may grace light his way.
Bless now, we pray, these moments of worship for us, and for folks all around the world, who take the time, and make the time, to give some time to you.
May hearts be touched, minds enlarged … may the love of Christ be lifted on high … may all of us, O God, step a bit closer to the reality of your creation, the goodness of your love, the purpose of our lives … to know Christ more fully, to serve him more completely, to love one another more ably … to tell a good joke now and then, offer a generous hand, challenge the nonsense of the day, speak kindly of everyone we can, and if we can’t speak kindly of someone, to keep our thoughts to ourselves.
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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