September 19, 2021

Offered by Joseph L. Morrow, Associate Pastor

God of space and time,
the Alpha and Omega who calls to us from the whirlwind,
like Job we approach you as infinite mystery.
Even in what we feel is your loving embrace, there is much we humbly accept we do not know.
And we can do little but open our arms to this grand journey with wonder, fear, and hope.

Wonder takes hold of us when we consider that there is anything at all,
that the grand creation is as beautiful from the farthest galaxy to the late summer flower blossoming before human eyes.
Yes, we marvel at the turning of the seasons,
the budding of new relationships and reunions,
new rhythms of rest and renewal that it brings
slowly making their way into our lives after years of great public distress,
for children and teachers returning, however trepidatiously, into the familiar sights of classrooms.
Somehow now we appreciate the grandness of small gestures and pleasant everyday moments we once took for granted.
The wonder leads us to gratitude.

But if we are honest, fear also abides with us.
We know there are sick people who need healing.
We see a pandemic that has taken so many lives unexpectedly and diminished a sense of common good and goodwill.
We see greed leading us to take more than we need from the earth and our neighbors.
We witness too many go hungry or lack housing or dignified work.
We find the grieving among us carrying many untold burdens.
We hear the cries from our streets for those slain and their loved ones.
We know that there are great dangers that surround us in these times and how precariously we trod.
And it can fill us with doubt and despair, the pain of the world so hard to fathom we can’t take in.

But we do know this:
You put compassion in our hearts, to tend to the vulnerable and aggrieved and isolated.
You give us wisdom and knowledge, through which we can respond the crises of health and politics and violence in our midst
You give us courage with which to approach with hope the neighbors we don’t know and those for whom we carry suspicion.
All we need is the will to follow your will.

This is the prayer we raise up to you in the name of Jesus, who taught his disciples to face the wonder and fear, praying, Our Father...

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church