Sunday Prayer

Most High God,
Most Gracious God,
Most Steadfast God:
you are good and beautiful,
unparalleled in mercy and faithfulness
to every generation. Have mercy now
and do not fail your Holy Name.

We come before your throne
to pray for those who worry and those who wait.
There is much to fear in this world and
we pray for each person who loses sleep
wondering if those they love will meet violence,
for those who defend fear with rigid orthodoxy,
for the ones who live in anticipation
of broken hearts.
There is no lack of waiting in this world:
for seasons to turn, for wars to end, for insight
to dawn, for you our God to show up in glory;
we pray for those waiting patiently and certainly impatiently.

We make an offering of our prayers
for those who hurt and those who heal,
though we wish there was not so much of the former.
We struggle to come to terms with a world so tolerant
of death, so callous toward its own hurt; we mourn
the injuries & diseases of the body as well as
the injuries & dis-eases of the spirit.
For each person who heals, who builds up others’ spirits,
who tends another’s wounds, who remains
when there is nothing else to do but be present,
we give our thanks and our promise to be such persons.

Hear us, O God, as we lift up the dreamers and the doers —
often two aspects of the same calling — and we pray over
those awaiting an invitation to participate.
Embolden the dreams shouted from the streets
of a world where Black Lives Matter, a world where
candlelight vigils are no longer needed, a world where preachers
and politicians alike do not build their platforms on division.
Strengthen those whose work is the care of others:
from bedsides to crisis shelters, as advocates and teachers,
through disaster and war and political storms.

Most High God,
Most Gracious God,
Most Steadfast God:
Each of these is someone we love:
worriers and wait-ers,
causing harm and causing healing,
busy with dreaming and doing.
This is us every day and this is
every stranger we never meet:
patient and then frantic, mindful but restless,
injured but ready to love,
fond of hope and called to the hard work of life.

You who are good and beautiful,
unparalleled in mercy and faithfulness
to every generation: have mercy on us
and do not fail your Holy Name. Amen.
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Rachel G. Hackenberg is a United Church of Christ (US) minister, soccer mom, blogger, and author. Her book Sacred Pause plays with words to refresh our relationship with The Word.
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