Reformation Sunday, October 28, 2012
Offered by Calum I. MacLeod, Executive Associate Pastor

You loved the world so much, O God,
that in Christ you dwelt among us,
crept in beside us,
undertook suffering, pain, and death,
and rose again triumphant from the grave.

And so with confidence
in your providing and sustaining grace, 
we pray for the world and for your church.

We pray for the world which you created good
and yet which finds itself dealing with war, hunger, division,
where as always the poorest and the innocent
know the full brunt of the aggression of the powerful.
So be close, Lord, to those who find themselves in the midst of conflict.
We pray for the people of Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan,
for those who work for peace in Israel/Palestine.

Hasten the day, Lord, when the weapons of war
will be transformed into tools for harvesting food,
and the war we wage is the war on hunger, poverty, and injustice.

We pray for our nation and for our leaders,
national and local;
for the nation we pray that at this time of economic unrest and political uncertainty,
the least among us will not be forgotten.

We pray that all who make decisions
impacting the common good
may be guided by the cry of your prophet,
“Let justice roll down like waters.”

We pray for our city in all its triumphs
and its struggles;
strengthen our engagement in and commitment
to the cause of making lives better.

We pray for our community here at Fourth Church.
Bring healing to the sick,
wholeness to those who are mentally ill,
peace to the dying,
and to the strong and well give strength and wisdom
to be harbingers of your kingdom.

Lord Jesus Christ, you built your church on the rock of redeemed humanity,
and we give thanks that through Peter and Paul,
through Augustine and Francis and Dame Julian,
through Luther, Calvin, and Knox,
through all the saints of every age,
you extended, reformed, and diversified
the household of faith.

We praise you for those in our own age
who brought honor to you by giving of themselves in the ultimate sacrifice.
We give thanks for Jane Haining and for Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
for Martin Luther King Jr. and Oscar Romero.
For all the saints who from their labors rest,
we give you thanks and praise.

And we who inherit their witness today
and reap what others have sown
bless you for our fathers and mothers in God.
Like them,
may we so love and serve your church
that those yet unborn
may benefit from our labor;
and when the grace of life on earth is past,
may we enjoy with them the company of heaven.

And with your church in every place we pray together
the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church