Prayer of the People
Delivered by Brian Cubbage on Sunday, August 17, 2014.
Merciful, loving, and gracious God,
We come before you today to confess that we seek to be the whole body of Christ in our own right. We seek to be self-sufficient islands, complete unto ourselves. But you remind us that we are only who we are within community. We are, therefore I am. Help us to remember that we are members of one body, borne upon one another's joys and griefs, struggles and victories; hurt by injustice done to any; liberated only by justice done for all. Help us to learn which member of the body we are. Help us to do and be well at being the part we are called to be, whether we be a hand to help; a mouth to speak; a leg to move; an ear to hear; a heart to feel; an eye to see.
This day we pray for all those members and friends of our community of faith who have need: Beth Eilers, James Knox, Raymond Philpot, Vicki Land's father, John Cutsinger, Craig Schroeder, Margie Moody, Kristina Peters, Max Chancellor, Jack Pittenger, Clara Cruikshank, Roger Geeslin, Richard Nash, Millie Rott, Harold Lindsey, Norman Harrison, and Hazel Wintzer
We pray for our community of faith as we reason together about our outreach into our neighborhood and our city.
We pray for the families of Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri; Ezell Brown of Los Angeles, California; Eric Garner of New York City; and for the families of all others who have died at the hands of police in our country.
We pray for the entire community of Ferguson and St. Louis, for those who protest for justice and for those sworn to uphold it, that honesty and a desire for truth guide all their, and our, words and actions.
We lift up in joy today all those, both within our community and without, who prepare to start a new school year. May your blessings be upon the learning and discovery they and we experience this year.
We pray for all those who struggle today with unemployment; with burdensome debt; with foreclosure; and with poverty and homelessness. We pray that, in a land of plenty, all may find a place at the table; and that we may know the favor of your jubilee.
We pray for all of those who endure the hatred and oppression of others on account of their race; their ethnicity; their nationality; their gender expression; their sexual orientation; their religion.
We pray finally for all those whose joys and woes and needs are known only to you, God, that you may shelter those deep within your heart.
It is in Jesus' name that we pray.
Amen.