Sunday, April 14, 2002
Offered by Thomas C. Rook, Parish Associate

Lord Jesus Christ, once crucified, dead, and buried, but now living and ruling and loving, show yourself to us in our lives today. O Savior Christ, as you made yourself known to your disciples in the breaking of bread, so open the eyes of our hearts that in faith we may sense your presence in our best thoughts, in our best actions on behalf of others. O Lord, help us to see with your eyes. Help us to listen with your ears. Help us to think about what we are doing in our world. Inspire us not to falter nor to make empty plans, but to join in your great plan of sharing your love and grace.

This day there is no heart here but is burdened and cast in shadow by the unfolding tragedies in what we call your Holy Land, O Lord. Years and generations of warfare leave us perplexed as to the conflicting rights of Israelis and Palestinians. It seems beyond our human wisdom to weight the justice and injustice, the wrongs given and received, by people fearful and angry and despairing of hope. Even now, as Secretary Powell meets with leaders on both sides, grant him and them, O Lord, some light of your Spirit, of insight and courage to find a path that we cannot divide, a path toward peace and justice. And open our eyes to see your own face in the despairing faces of children and mothers and fathers in that place. Hasten the day when “they shall not hurt or destroy on your holy mountain, when no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it or the sound of distress.”

We confess that hostility and foreboding is not confined to conflicting nations and armies, but darkness also comes within our own lives. A child experiences disrespect and maltreatment within her own home; a son waits in vain for his father’s blessing. A student is excluded from friendship by classmates, and another goes fearfully to and from school each day. A young woman and a middle-aged man have worked faithfully and well in their jobs and are now notified of dismissal. And someone this day is awaiting results of medical tests or impending medical procedures, and their spirit is clouded in fear of the outcome.

And so, Lord Jesus, we too hunger for your presence in our lives. We need to feel your strong hand holding ours. We need desperately to trust and to know that we are finally not alone but that you walk beside us, will never leave us, and that you promise, in life, in death, that we are yours and can never fall out of your love. Lord, remember us, each one of us here today. Give us the grace to cast all our cares on you, knowing that you care for us.

In that hope and faith, using words the Lord Jesus taught his followers to pray, we now say in one voice, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church