“It is the Lord” Congregational Prayer

God, thank you for the dawn that comes every morning,
even after our darkest nights.
We give you thanks for life resurrecting from the death of winter.
For birds singing their spring songs in the dark before the dawn;
for the ice on rivers, shattered,
for the first green spikes of spring poking up through the melting earth,
for the smell of spring air fresh when we open the door,
for the sun’s rays on our face, warming us.
For every sign of spring, we give you thanks!

We give you thanks for your son Jesus Christ,
for his sacrifice for us, for his teaching.
Help us to grasp resurrection; to understand its power,
to see its force at work in our world,
thawing the hatred within us, melting our hearts,
changing our human landscape slowly, forcefully.
We pray your hand would intervene in the war-torn country of _________,
that peace could be planted there, that new life could come
to a country so firmly held in the grip of death.
We pray for refugees, especially the families new to our community
that they could find a home here and put down roots.

Jesus, we might not always recognize you,
but thank you that you walk with us in both the big cataclysms of our time,
and in the everyday events too.
Thank you that you are walking with all the parents in this church,
as they make a thousand decisions every day,
to insist or to let go, to mediate or not to mediate,
the tone of voice they use, the choices about activities.
Forgive us for the times we’ve failed to show love to our family members,
for the ways we’ve hardened our hearts
even to those we love the most.
Give us grace to apologize, and wisdom to make things right.

Thank you for your presence in the doctor’s offices, clinics and hospitals we visit,
as we face sickness, as we recover.
Thank you that you are with us at the moment of death,
and with those left behind to grieve.
We wait for the moments where you are suddenly revealed
in the every day and painful moments of our lives,
where we say, wonderingly, “It is the Lord!”
Thank you for the times we catch sight of your kingdom come,
in the person of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in us forever. 
Amen