Prayer as We Gather: Thank you, Lord, for keeping the promise you made to prophet Joel, of a coming day when your Spirit would be poured out on daughters as well as sons, old as well as young, enslaved and free females as well as males. In this holy hour, help us recognize all around us the signs of entrenched power being supplanted by audacious young voices clamoring for change. We join our own voices to those who will be delivered simply because they called on your name. Amen.*(Inspired by Joel 2:23-32)
Call to Worship:
To you, O God, even silence is praise.
Promises made to you are kept.
When wrongdoings become too much for me,
You forgive my sins.
How happy is the one you choose to bring close,
The one who lives in your courtyards!
You answer us, God of our deliverance,
You visit the earth and make it abundant,
You crown the year with your goodness;
Your pastures, meadows and valleys break out in song! (from Psalm 65, The Common English Bible)
Morning Prayer: Lord, like apostle Paul we are privileged to be poured out as a sacrifice for you, mindful that our heroes of the faith never promised following Jesus would be easy. Help us find our voice in these chaotic days of national dissolution, when from the highest corridors of power lies are spewed more glibly than truth. May we mirror German reformer Martin Luther’s courage in standing alone against the combined fury of church and state, confident that you will rescue us from “the Prince of Darkness grim, whose rage we can endure.” Grant us the will to ”let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also,” assured that your truth abides and your kingdom is forever, for we trust the Galilean who taught us to pray, saying …*(Inspired by 2 Timothy 4 and the poetry of Martin Luther)
Prayer of Confession: Forgive us, Lord, when our comfortable cultural captivity reduces us to a caricature, like the religious leader in Jesus’ short story whose loud, proud parody of prayer in the temple was little more than a haughty soliloquy about himself: “I thank you, God, that I’m not like everyone else!” Sadly, we are too often exactly like everyone else, in our tireless search for acceptance and recognition among our peers. How pathetically empty must our resume-enhancing desperation appear to you, who shaped us in our mother’s womb and knew us before we had a name. Have mercy on us when even our tithing is calculated to impress others, not serve you. Amen.*(Inspired by Luke 18)
Assurance of Pardon: I have good news: Nestled within the same short story where Jesus crafts for us an example of how not to behave , he also provides a classic, compassionate portrait of exactly what true servant-hood humility would look like, issuing forth from arguably the most despised profession of Jesus’ day, a lowly tax collector: “God, show mercy to me, a sinner.” Now that’s what genuine, repentant prayer should sound like, heart-broken and pleading. Thanks be to God, such prayer is still the proper place to start, still possible for any who truly long to follow Jesus.*(Inspired by Luke 18)
Thought for a Sabbath Day: “The fact that allegiance to family, faith and national pride – the holy trinity of American traditionalism – is in precipitous decline tells us something important about the evolution of the American identity.” - Derek Thompson, American writer