Sunday, May 13, 2018
Offered by Nanette Sawyer, Associate Pastor

Gracious and loving God, on this Ascension Sunday we remember the moment that Jesus withdrew his resurrected body from the disciples and ascended into your full presence.

Just as Jesus blessed his disciples, we know that he blesses us. Just as Jesus commanded the disciples to stay in the city until they were clothed with heavenly power, we know that you have also promised us that you would cover us with your power and infuse us with your grace, so that we may do our ministry here in the city of Chicago.

Yet sometimes we have felt your absence from our lives. We have wondered where you are, even felt abandoned at times. We have confronted challenges that leave us baffled and overwhelmed.

Some of us have struggled to find meaningful work. Some of us have confronted illnesses and lost loved ones.

Some of us have made terrible choices and damaged our relationships and our health and our hope for the future. Some of us struggle with addictions that are hard to admit and even harder to heal from.

We pray for every person in this congregation, God, including every person present here today and those who are not with us. We pray that you would pour your strength and healing and forgiveness and clarity into all our hearts and minds.

We give you thanks today for all our mothers and for all women, who mother the world through their teaching, guiding, loving, disciplining, and influencing us all.

The Bible says that you love us, God, like a nursing mother loves her infant child, and so we give you thanks for the motherly love that you extend to us.

Turn us around, Holy One. Make us strong vessels to carry the treasure that is you. When we break, when we crumble, which we will do in our vulnerable human bodies, we know that you can heal our hearts. We pray that you would re-form us as a potter reshapes clay pots. Make us beautiful, God. Let us receive you and carry your glory into every place we go.

May our prayers reach to the ends of the earth. May world leaders be touched by wisdom. May peace and justice spread throughout the world. May we fulfill our responsibilities and be good stewards of all you have given us to care for.

As we lift up these spoken prayers and the unspoken prayers of our hearts, we join our voices with the voice of Jesus, praying in the way he taught us, saying, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church