Sunday, November 19, 2017
Offered by Judith L. Watt, Associate Pastor

God of all time, all places, all people, we admit our unknowing, that we can’t begin to understand you fully. But also we cling to what we do understand: that you hear our prayers, that you love us with a perfect love, that you see through our self-doubt and our wandering desires, our fear and our immense focus on ourselves, that you see through all of that and yet still see loveliness and value and potential in each one of us.

In this time of harvest, fill us with real thanksgiving for all of life. For family situations that threaten to overwhelm us, help us see gifts of grace and surprising moments. For grief over the loss of a treasured friend or devoted leader, remind us of the best parts of that wonderful friendship and how we’ve been changed by it. For hospital tests that bring relief, make us relish in that relief rather than race on. For scary health news, highlight those loyal friends who reach out, not knowing what to do or say but still they reach out anyway. Lord, in this time of harvest, fill us with thanksgiving for all of life.

We give you thanks for the earth’s resources, for food that nurtures us, for beauty of tree and forest, sea and sky, for farmers who nurture seed, and for unseen workers doing the tedious work of picking our coffee beans or our grapes or whatever else we take for granted. O God, make us mindful of our duty to care for this earth.

We pray for our government and its leaders, that democracy would be strengthened, that collaboration beyond party would be reborn, that laws for the sake of the health and education and safety of our people would be the rule, that good work for fair pay would be available. Dear Lord, we pray for anyone who has been assaulted, who has been treated like an object.

Lord, in this time of harvest, make us thankful for all of life, for the gift of this faith and this community, for the freedom to worship, for the gift of your Son and our brother and friend, Jesus, the One around whom we gather to learn how to live and love. We pray all of this saying the prayer Jesus taught: Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church