Sunday, March 26, 2000
Offered by Carol Allen, Associate Pastor

Most Holy God, you face us with a difficult choice. You ask us to choose between you and every other god.

Each makes promises. Both demand loyalty. You call us to live by faith—faith in your sovereignty over the future, in your sufficiency for the present. Other gods make their appeal through things which we can see and forces that we can manipulate. O Lord, do you know how tempted we are to believe that we are god enough? Do you know how hard it is when we find that our yearnings are too deep to be that easily satisfied, when with the songwriter, we cry out:

“Why do babies starve when there’s enough food to feed the world. Why when they’re so many of us there are people still alone. Why are the missiles called peace keepers when they’re aimed to kill. Why is a woman still not safe when she’s in her home. Love is hate. War is peace. No is yes. And we’re all free.

Somebody’s gonna have to answer. The time is coming soon. Amidst all these questions and contradictions they’re some who seek the truth. Somebody’s gonna have to answer. The time is coming soon when the blind remove their blinders and speechless speak the truth” (Tracy Chapman).

O God, who is above all other gods, help us keep our eyes on Jesus, who by faith chose you and who was bold because of his great trust. he believed in you and faced his fears and challenged the way things were and the powers that be. He relied upon your power to open up possibilities. He practiced love in a world that practiced apathy. He risked living with passion and sensitivity to joy and to sorrow. He was lavish in his attention to persons in all walks of life. He did not go around the cross but trusted you to bring life out of death.

Creator and Redeemer God, please offer this same promise and possibility to all who hunger and thirst this day—children left without sustenance, comfort and home; those who are dying without kind attention to their worry and their pain; all who are forced to give up that which has become the center of their identities: work, status, a loved one, a familiar place; all who are addicted to substances and situations that drain from them their integrity and dignity; all who face harsh attacks because they dare to confront unfairness and tyranny in this nation and in all nations. Come swiftly to all these with your power to save, O God. Fill us with your strength and peace. Call us to offer our gifts to those people and places who have most need of them. Equip us to serve, and send us forth, praying the prayer Jesus taught his followers to say, Our Father . . . Amen.

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church