Sunday, October 16, 2016
Offered by Judith L. Watt, Associate Pastor

God of the abused, God of the homeless, God of the oppressed, God of the oppressor, God of the politician, God of the caregiver, God of the banker, God of the cook, God of the teacher, God of the physician, God of the police officer, God of every single last one of us, you are our God and we are your people. You are our God and we are your people in need.

We are your people in need because we see a world that is so in need of love and reconciliation, justice and the kind of peace that can come only when there is justice. We are your people in need because so many layers have been peeled off and we complain about the problems out there but we see also the problems within ourselves. And we are scared. So give us courage. Give us courage to see and call out the truth of sin and evil in the world, but also give us eyes that continue to see your hand in the midst of the fear and uneasiness.

We pray for the children, women, and men of Aleppo, Syria, being bombed, deprived of food and medicine and safety. Give political leaders determination to stop the inhumanity that continues unchecked. Give sustenance to all people working to alleviate the suffering caused by hurricanes that have ravaged Latin America and the Caribbean and parts of the United States.

Be with our loved ones, those who are struggling with relationships or worry about work or seem to have no sense of you in their lives. Give hope to the hopeless, food to the hungry, love to the unlovable, humility to the greedy. Lead us, O God, your people in need, to bring about a future when all people are seen as your people, when there no longer will be a need for black parents to have “the talk” with their sons, when there no longer will be a need for parents of any color to have “the talk” with their daughters, when no one is an object to be disregarded. Give us courage to look within ourselves, to become aware of our own dismissals, our own sin, and the parts of our hearts that have become hardened for whatever reason. Remind us to be grateful—grateful for prayer, grateful for your merciful love and acceptance of us, grateful for your being a God who knows human suffering because you experienced it, grateful for the promise that nothing, that absolutely nothing, can separate us from you. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, in whose death and resurrection we find our own stories of death and resurrection and hope. Hear us as we pray, saying, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church