Tomorrow's Offering

Advent begins tomorrow. Advent stress the times in life when we are waiting upon the Lord. How appropriate it is that I am still waiting on the sermon. O sure, it's all here in my computer, but its missing something. I will try to be unanxious as I wait for the missing pieces to unfold.

Tomorrow's sermon is on the beautiful messianic passage from Isaiah 9. The title is "Wait and See." I hate it when my sermon preparation undermines the sermon itself. I've had to be patient with this one. Sigh. Someday I will learn to trust God enough to be at ease about preaching.

Here's tomorrow's prayer (at least it is ready!):

Prayers of the Church for Grandview
December 2, 2007

What a beautiful picture you paint, O God. The colors on your canvas are ablaze with light. The gift of life that you have given us radiates from you and it delights us. Thank you for creating us with the ability think thoughts of love for one another and for you. Thank you for creating us with ability to enjoy the bounty of the harvest. Thank you for taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound. When this world is aflame with your presence and perfection, O God, we cannot contain our admiration, it simply spills forth in worship and praise and honor and glory.

Even as we praise you, Lord, we are aware that you paint with dark colors, too; with deep patches of gloom and impenetrable mystery. They leave us dumbfounded and distraught. Sometimes they are the only pieces of the painting we can see. Sometimes they overwhelm us. When we find ourselves thus, send your Spirit to lift us out of the pit, to place our feed on solid rock, to give our eyes perfect perspective. Give us the grace to gaze upon the fullness of your accomplishments through history and hope, through suffering and joy, through the movement of your Spirit who is working to bring all of creation back into the age of Eden.

Until then, Lord, we need your forgiveness for our sins. Forgive us when all we see is our sin, crowding out any vision of your grace. Forgive us when we get stuck in our moments of pain, refusing to see how you might redeem our suffering. Forgive us when we lose hope in the one who moves history. Forgive us when we refuse to see Jesus standing triumphantly outside his own grave.

Lord, we need your help with our suffering. We need healing for the sick; hope for those who are lost beneath an avalanche of heartache; comfort for those who are grieving, protection for those exposed to violent evil, and strength for those weakened by the dark patches of life.

You told us to pray for our enemies, and so we pray—recognizing that we can only do so by the power of your grace. It’s awfully hard to mean it when we ask you to bless those who persecute and hate. Lord, Bless our enemies.

In this season of waiting, we pray that you would not hide your face from us as we gather before you and offer ourselves to you in the stillness:

silence

We pray as you have taught us: