Sunday, November 23, 2008
Offered by Calum I. MacLeod, Acting Executive Associate Pastor

We are your people gathered, O God,
     the sheep of your pasture,
having given thanks and praised your name,
     for you are our God and the author of our being.
We come from different places with differing backgrounds,
     our thanksgivings united, our concerns varied,
but we come to you because in your Son Jesus Christ you promise,
     “Lo, I am with you until the end of the age.”
So hear our thanksgivings, Lord,
     for the great bounty of the earth,
          providing enough that all who hunger may be fed,
          challenging the powerful to ensure that the earth’s goodness is shared.
Hear our thanksgivings for the new life that we know in Christ,
     the gift of grace for which we seek to be faithful in our response of love.

For many here today our thanksgivings are tinged with anxiety,
our preparation for the holiday clouded by fears about the economy,
the markets, job security.
We pray for those most affected by economic woes,
for the poorest, the marginalized in our world
for whom potential reductions in aid or charity giving mean less support
from the social service agencies and NGOs;
for the auto worker, the insurance agent,
the banker whose once prosperous future now looks precarious,
and we do not forget your beloved ones whose anxiety
     is focused not on financial fears
but on a “bolt from the blue” medical test result,
a sudden bereavement; the facing of death itself.
Bless and comfort all who are anxious this day, gracious God.

And yet even in this there is thanksgiving;
even in this there is praise to be offered with cheerful voice;
even in this there is your presence and our hope,
as we hear your words “I will not fail you or forsake you!”

And so with confidence in your promises we pray together, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church