Sunday, August 30, 2009
Offered by Adam H. Fronczek, Associate Pastor

We are looking for you, God. We come into your house looking for something different, for peace from the strife outside, for something to fill the emptiness inside. We look for rules, for answers to the injustices that face our world. We come hoping that someone will hear us. As the psalmist did in ancient days, we each in our own way ask, “When shall I behold the face of God?”

Your Word tells us that we must care for the orphan, the widow, and the alien in our midst. Those words seem so far away, but they are not, for so many in our world are without parents or one who will care for them. So many have grieved the death of a spouse or endured the anguish of divorce. So many in our city are in a new and strange place far from their homes and families. We pray for them all. Each one is made in your image.

We are looking for you, God.

Your Word calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. They are far away and they are close to us. Some carry out terror in planes and trains. Others execute their injustice and violence on city streets and playgrounds. And some wield their power unfairly in their very own homes with angry words and in workplaces with the thoughtless stroke of a pen. And we do not understand them. Sometimes we ourselves have been these people—the violent, the angry, the persecutor. And we pray for them all. Each one is made in your image.

We are looking for you, God.

Your Word reminds us of the suspicion and betrayal and fear Jesus felt from his own people and even from his friends. We have felt suspicion and betrayal and fear. We have felt it in the relationships that mean the most to us. We have felt distanced from spouses and partners, parents and children, brothers and sisters; our pride and stubbornness has kept us apart. Sickness and death have made us afraid. Betrayals of trust have made it hard to forgive. But even in the most difficult of places, Lord, you have made us, each one of us, in your image. And so we pray for those we love most. And we pray for ourselves.

We are looking for you, God.

And we pray because we are concerned that we might be missing something as we make our choices about how to live. Perhaps you want more from us, God, than we have offered before. Perhaps you are calling us to take responsibility for all those who you have created in your image. Might we behold the face of God in a stranger or in the one whom we love? Might we see you in the lonely one or the enemy in our midst? Might we see the face of God if we learn to love ourselves as we should?

Might we see you most clearly when we are free to behold your face in places all around us? God, help us not to dwell upon your absence but to catch glimpses of your presence all around us. Help us to see your image on the face of a child boarding the school bus and a newcomer in need of a friend. Help us to see you in the forgiveness of old arguments and in the chances for something new. May we model not just our speech but our very lives in the spirit of Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray: Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church