July 16, 2023

Offered by Joseph L. Morrow, Associate Pastor

You are everywhere the giver and renewer of life, O Lord of Heaven and Earth, and our minds and hearts draw near to you as orchids reach for the sun and deer search for streams of living waters. For we all are in need of nourishment, of that which can not only feed us but also fulfill our destiny. We seek you and your word of hope this morning, praying that it might enrich the soils of our lives, that your goodness, mercy, and righteousness might permeate the ground from which our lives spring forth.

We bring before your mercy the soil of our society — from the global community to which it is connected to the city in whose heart this sanctuary stands.

We pray that you might protect the soil, the earth on which our society depends but also which you adore for its own sake — every tree, flower, fish or fowl, mountain and valley. In the midst of historic heat waves and droughts from Arizona to Uruguay, we pray that those in harm’s way may have reprieve and that we all might awake to our responsibilities to tend the resources you provide us as precious gifts, not cheap grace.

God of steadfast love, extend your lifegiving word to the soil of our city and its streets, blocks, suburbs, and byways. Might you root its common spaces — parks we play in, the places we labor in, the schools our young people learn in — in your love and justice. Let these places be bedrocks of safety and protection. Let those leaders who steward them be people of integrity, wisdom, and compassion.

Let your love extend its roots to our households and neighbors, families and friends, that they may find among us places of respite, of trust. Let that love extend to your church, that many far and wide might find it a place of welcome and friendship on their spiritual and life journey. We give thanks for the times and people through whom that goodness is prophetically communicated. So we lift up our former pastor, Shannon Kershner, as she shares your promises with the people of Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta today.

God before whom we are fearfully and wondrously made, we know there is precious soil deep inside each of us, no matter what trials we have endured, what pain we have transmitted. We ask you to help cultivate and grow our values and character. Heal also our bodies. Give us comfort as we grieve and strength to love more fervently.

But most of all we pray to the one who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly with the very dust of the earth more than we can ask or imagine. To this holy one we give our sacred being, praying in the name of Jesus, author and perfector of our faith, who taught us to pray: Our Father …

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church