Tomorrow marks the end of the Sermon on the Mount series. My biggest regret is that I left so many areas of the Sermon untouched. The good news is that there is plenty of material left for any return to the Sermon on the Mount (a good series of sermons would probably be something like "things I didn't have the nerve to preach last time").
Tomorrow is a big day for us. We have a fine young man who will be baptized in the first service. As I write I am struck by the intensity of life that takes place in a church building. We celebrate such highs and we mourn such lows in that sanctuary--it's no wonder people get attached to rooms and places.
The text tomorrow is the one you sang about as a kid (if you grew up in the church). "The rains came down and the floods came up . . .".
Here is the prayer for tomorrow. We won't say the Lord's Prayer at the end of the prayer because select members of the Swain family will be gracing us by singing it for us.
Don't expect another blog entry anytime soon. I've received the first edits on my dissertation and I need to make the changes by Monday. It's going to be a tedious weekend in my head!
Hope to see you tomorrow.
Prayers of the Church for Grandview
July 29, 2007
Mighty God, unshakeable foundation of all that is, seen and unseen, look favorably upon us as come before you. The whole universe sits squarely and solidly upon your shoulders.
And so we come to you. You know our circumstances better than we ourselves. You know the pain and the joy of our lives. You know the temptations and the triumphs. You know what storms people have you endured. You’ve watched when the rains came down, when the streams rose, when the winds blew and beat against the house.
But we have not fallen. We have not fallen because you are our ground and our foundation. Stable, strong, and steady are you Lord. You are our rock, our crag, our sure place to stand.
Forgive us for choosing the quicksand, then, when you have been so gracious. Forgive us for choosing anger, lust, hatred, violence, blame, anxiety, playacting, and death when you have offered love, purity, kindness, forgiveness, peace, and joy through the life and example of your Son, Jesus of Nazareth.
May the light of your teaching, through your Son, shine in us and through us. Help us to be squeezed into the shape of Jesus, even when that shape is cruciform; with arms wide and nailed to a tree. You have promised that if we lift up your Son, you will draw all people unto you. We lift him up, Lord, through our lives—with your help. Give us the purity of heart to do this for the sake of the world, not for our own sakes. Help us, then, to be a blessing to our neighbors, to the whole world.
In the silence, we listen to you, Lord. If you are willing, show us where we have built our lives on shifting sand instead of upon the Word of Life.
silence
Lord, our prayer list seems to change so little. This can be discouraging for us. You know each need. Please grant healing to the sick, your joyful Spirit to those who are discouraged, resources for the poor, the challenge of your cross to those who have grown apathetic, protection for those who stand between our nation and our nation’s enemies, hope for those who see only darkness in their future, release for the oppressed, and a peaceful death for those whose time to die has come.
Lord, let the words of the prayer that your Son taught us in the Sermon on the Mount fill our hearts . . .
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