Tomorrow's Offering

From Wilmore I'm trying to tie the loose ends of sermon prep and get my normal things finished, even as I lace working on my dissertation into the process. I like where tomorrow's sermon starts, and I like where it goes in the middle ... but the ending still needs work. Perhaps I can contemplate it during the four and a half hour ride back to Johnson City.

Here's the prayer. Have a great weekend.

Prayers of the Church for Grandview
December 23, 2007

Lord, forgive us when we think we have too little to offer you. For you have heaped gifts upon us and made us rich. You have poured life into us, and when we were full you kept pouring so that we would become overflowing with life. We praise you for the gifts of touch and taste, sight and sound, friend and foe. We praise you for beauty in the faces around us this morning, for the fizzy vigor of youth and for the unruffled wisdom of old age. We praise you for luxury of being able to pause this week and celebrate with others that scandalous baby you became in the womb of Mary—foolish to those who didn’t know you, a stumbling block to those who thought they did.

You changed the world without heavy handed threats, without weapons of mass destruction, and without political maneuvering. You changed the world through the innocent cry of a baby in a manger and the innocent cry of a man on a cross. Glory and honor and praise belong to you! How wise you are! How patient you are! How loving you are!

Forgive us when we grow too comfortable to notice what you have done for us; when we become complacent and lazy about the ultimate sacrifices and the loving gestures you have made. Forgive us when we complain about the gift of life, and resent that there are better ways to use that gift than to be selfish with it.

Move us from penitence to praise, from groveling to glory, from collapse to chorus.

As we sing, join our voices to the missionaries’ voices as they serve and praise you. Join us to the Coleys, Freelands, Headens, McDades, Nyadors, Veals, Orths and to the Jacksons and Colemans as they prepare to serve you in places foreign to us, but known to you.

As we sing, join our hearts to those who are in need. Bless those who have little or no access to education, support, and wealth. Bless those who wake up each morning under a government that does not fear you or the people they serve. Bless those who struggle with sins that cause them to withdraw from community. Give healing to the sick; comfort to the grieving; protection for those who stand between us and our enemies. Bless our friends and our enemies with your peace. Give to the dying a peaceful death. Give to the living hope, joy, and heartiness.

Lord, we bring out unspoken concerns and praises to you in the silence …

The Lord’s Prayer