“Can these bones live” Easter Congregational Prayer

(we prayed this prayer after reading Ezekiel 37:1-14)

God of grace,
we feel your hand upon us this morning,
saving us, loving us, encouraging us.
Jesus, you lived and walked among us,
you know us through and through.
You are familiar with our tombs,
the places where we have laid loved ones to rest,
and also those places where we are dead inside.
And you know the wars we fight,
personal and on a larger scale.
You have visited the battlefields, filled with corpses.
You ask us, “Can these bones live?”
and we think it’s impossible.
Death seems so final and powerful.  
And so does racism, and sexism, and every other ism.
We feel buried under the problems of our world.
Thank you for being an impossibility specialist;
you bring new life where there is lifelessness,
you resurrect hope where we feel only despair.
We pray this morning for the peace of Jerusalem,
you walked its streets, you wept there,
and you died and were buried.
The rocks of Jerusalem opened
to release your resurrected body.
We pray that peace could come to that land,
that a way could be found that leads to peace.
Thank you that in our own lives,
you are working to bring new life.
For those who are sick, healing.
For those who are grieving, hope.
For those who are anxious about money, release.
For those who are fighting in their family, peace.
We hear the word of the Lord,
and feel a pulse, a breath of fresh air,
hope springs eternally at your command.
Help us to be an Easter people,
singing a resurrection song,
good news for all the world to hear.
We pray this confidently,
in the name of Jesus,
the Risen One,
Amen.