Tomorrow's Offering

After a manic week I'm going to be working on the sermon a lot today. The text for this week's sermon is John 9. This chapter is commonly known as the Healing of the Man Born Blind. Having spent the past few weeks in John's gospel I am finding a new appreciation for it. I like the picture of Jesus that John paints when Jesus is interacting with people. He brings out a side of Jesus that is harder to see in the other three gospels. This Jesus is much better at banter.

The youth are up in Grundy, Virginia today serving at The Mountain Mission School. Feel free to pray for their safety, but also for the growth, community, and maturity than can be the fruit of these kinds of trips.

Here is the prayer:

Prayers of the Church for Grandview
2 March 2008

O God, whether we are born sinners or become sinners, whether nativity bestows our afflictions upon us or we simply embrace them along life’s path, we come to you because you are the one who loves, forgives, and heals. We come to you because you are the fountain of life, eternal and effervescent. We come to you because in the palm of your Son’s hand is a new reality, wounded, healed, transcended, and offered to the world.

Mix your Spirit with our clay and remove our blindness, we wash ourselves in your healing stream, sinking beneath the waters in faith, trusting that you will pour your grace upon and through us.

Forgive us, Lord, for being healed but refusing to become healers. Forgive us our inaction when your world needs the body of your Son, the church, to move in its midst and speak words of life. Forgive us for becoming religious spin doctors and spectators when you have called us to pick up our crosses and to bear the stripes that will heal others.

So many of us would do more in your kingdom if we would be freed from our prisons of addiction, self-interest, fear, and sloth. Lord, in the silence call us from incarceration to incarnation; from lethargy to love.

silence

Bless those on our prayer list this morning. Bless, also, those who minister to their needs. For those who are depressed, we ask for renewal and hope. For those who sick, we ask for healing. For those who are being filled anger and hate, we ask for the willingness and ability to forgive. For those in harm’s way, we ask for safety. For those who are grieving the loss of marriage or loved one, we pray for your Holy Spirit to be a sure and present comforter. And for those whose time to die has come, we pray for a peaceful and timely death.

Lord, please continue to bless the organizations that further the work of your kingdom here and around the world. Bless Agape Women’s Services, Appalachian Christian Camp, Appalachian Christian Village, the Christian Student Fellowship at ETSU, Emmanuel School of Religion, the European Evangelistic Society, Interfaith Hospitality Network, Milligan College, and the Salvation Army—and all who provide labor and support for them.

We boldly pray as your Son has taught us: