Hear our cries, God!
Invasion, occupation, and terror,
bombs, bullets and missiles.
Dead bodies, wounded bodies, orphans,
bombs, bullets and missiles.
Prisoners, hostages, refugees,
bombs, bullets and missiles.
Anguish, hopelessness, rage,
bombs, bullets and missiles.
Destruction on the grandest scale,
the earth cratered with hatred.
Jesus, make it stop.
Every war ends.
Help us…
God of our side, and God of our enemies’ side,
hear our prayer:
we need your help here on planet earth.
With heavy hearts we confess
the brokenness on our beautiful blue planet.
Hear the sound of gunfire,
see the bomb craters,
taste the bitterness of people hating people,
smell the fear that permeates our lives,
touch the hearts of the wounded.
Go into your week
with your ears pitched
to the sound of God’s voice calling your name.
Go into your week
with your eyes peeled
for the face of Jesus in unexpected places.
Go into your week
with your soul poised
to receive the Spirit of God,
the Spirit of Peace.
We listen this morning to the sound of our own breath,
and the breathing of those around us. [pause for 30 seconds]
Thank you God for breath,
for life flowing in and out of each of us.
It is wonderful to be alive—thank you for life!
Thank you for the sweet scent of the breath of spring;
for blossoms, apricot, cherry, peach,
for daffodils and sweet hyacinths,
for the good earth, turned over and ready for seed,
for the strong sun and its power.
Thank you that you are a God who hears our breath.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ [NRSV]
Merciful God:
We come together to worship longing for tenderness
because this world can be hard.
We come longing for light
because our lives are crowded with shadows.
We come desperately needing direction.
Fill us this morning with your peace:
your spirit is our peace and our path.
Thank you God for giving us
minds that think and ideas that soar.
Thank you for giving us language and writing,
and prosperity that enables education for many.
Thank you for brilliant inventors who created
technological marvels; radio waves radiating,
microscopes magnifying, computers computing.
Thank you that we have even created artificial intelligence
and robots that do work for us and with us.
Today we pray for good things gone bad;
for social media tools that isolate us from our neighbour,
for algorithms that misinform us about our world,
Creator God
thank you for Indigenous and Inuit communities,
strong after centuries of persecution.
Families with deep bonds of love,
wise with elders, rich in culture, lovers of the land,
speaking with powerful voices that cannot be silenced.
God of justice, God of love,
hear our prayer of lament for crimes committed:
for land taken, for children stolen.
for laws that hobbled culture,
for languages legislated out of existence,
for racist policies of every kind
that produced a wicked harvest of poverty.
You know how this toxic power dynamic
Welcome to worship
at this turn of the season.
As the temperatures dip
we gather in the warmth
of God’s presence,
as the darkness grows
we seek Gods light,
as the earth rests from its labours
we long for God’s peace.
Come, let us worship God together!
We come to the Lord’s supper together
as children of our one God.
Jesus makes the guest list, not us.
Our family, chosen by God,
is gathered from west and east,
and includes everyone,
even the lowest and the least.
Jesus, when he was resurrected from the dead,
revealed himself to his disciples
in the breaking of bread around a table.
May we see the face of God today as we come to the Lord’s Supper.
I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.
I love to write and to lead worship! If you are finding my writing helpful, I would love to hear from you! Feel free to use or adapt the material here, it is all written by me. If printing material, please credit “Copyright Carol Penner www.leadinginworship.com” (and say whether you modified it). If publishing, please contact me for permission. Contact me at carol@leadinginworship.com
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