Sunday, January 20, 2013
Offered by Joyce Shin, Associate Pastor

Almighty God, things are not as they should be. Some things are terribly wrong. And though we have played a part in making them wrong, somehow we do not know how to make them right. Forgive us. We are slow to confess our sin and quick to point out others’ faults. We are ready to complain and reluctant to press for change. Help us, God, to take responsibility, to speak out, and to stand up for what is simply right.

Convict us, God, with such strong distaste for anything reprehensible. Keep us from turning away from the distortions of truth and perversions of justice. Remind us, almighty God, that you will not settle for less than an earth that is aligned with heaven. You will not overlook the abuses of power and privilege that we condone. You will not congratulate us on achievements won out of self-interest.

Instead you call us out and demand that we be our brother’s keeper. And when that is hard to do, you require us to be ready and willing to make sacrifices. Forgive us when we are apathetic and when we disown problems as though they belong to someone else. Drive us to care and to commit ourselves to causes beyond our own.

You have endowed us with hearts that beat not just to live, but to live for one another. Fill us with a prophet’s courage, and give us fellow companions with whom to stand. When things get tough, as they will, make us for one another a comfort and a strength, an encouragement and a witness. Yoke us together by loyalties that become shared and a mission that is one.

And when the wrongs of the world might overwhelm us, remind us, God, that though they are great, your power is yet greater. Until that day when your kingdom comes, when heaven and earth so meet that we cannot tell the line between them, sustain us with your Spirit. Take root in and uplift us that we may never doubt in your power to make all things right.

In the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray as he taught: Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church