Prayer as We Gather: Eternal God, may this holy hour find our priorities rearranged like Job’s, whose fortunes changed when he began to pray for his friends. Grant us the consolation they provided to his troubled spirit, once his attention shifted from himself to the needs of others. Help us shift likewise, so we too may one day die as Job died, “old and satisfied.” Amen.*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Job 42)
Call to Worship:
I live and breathe God, who freed me from my anxious fears,
Met me more than halfway, got me out of a tight spot when I was desperate.
Taste and see how good God is!
Blessed are those who run to God.
Worshiping God opens doors to all God’s goodness,
So come listen closely for a lesson in God worship.
Guard your tongue from lying, turn your back on sin.
Do something good: Embrace peace, don’t let it get away!
Disciples so often get into trouble;
Still, God is there every time. (excerpted from Psalm 34, The Message)
Morning Prayer: Thank you, Lord, amidst daily reminders of our changeable, tenuous existence, for the one great constant in our lives: Jesus, our High Priest, holds that office permanently, not subject to electoral whim or human mortality. Unable to trust the integrity of those who have pushed and shoved their way to the front of the powers-that-be line, we turn our weary hearts to Jesus, who alone is able to rescue us, and who “always lives to speak with God for us.” We pray as he instructed us, saying … *(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Hebrews 7)
Prayer of Confession: Forgive, O Lord, our stubborn refusal to trust your capacity for the miraculous. Like the orthodox crowd of Jesus’ day who, trapped within their stifling sense of what is possible, scolded a blind man for crying out to Jesus for healing, we have timidly hedged our bets on what miracles you might perform among us. Our tidy little lives offer scant resemblance to the thoroughly dangerous man we claim as Messiah, giving the skeptical world little reason to believe anything we say about Jesus. Have mercy on our peculiar form of spiritual blindness. Amen.*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Mark 10)
Assurance of Pardon: I have good news, perhaps too good for you to believe: When Jesus asked the blind man “What do you want me to do for you?” he answered without hesitation “Teacher, I want to see,” to which Jesus replied simply: “Go, your faith has healed you.” Sound too simple? Perhaps your apparently unanswered prayers have less to do with Jesus hearing them and more to do with your unwillingness to act upon what you already know to do. Thanks be to God for the miracle of the possible!*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Mark 10)
Thought for a Sabbath Day: “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, even you.” - Anne Lamott, Writer