“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” – Psalm 119:105
Loving God of light and goodness and grace and peace; by whatever name you are known we give you thanks. With people of faith around the world we proclaim you and seek common ways to worship and serve you.
Your light shines out in the blazing colors of fall and the steely blue color of the ocean that signals the change in season. All of life – human and animal, plant and earth, sea creature and creatures of the air – bears witness to the truth of you. Each act of kindness, each act of justice, each act of love bears witness to the truth of you. Each face reflects your face and we praise you for the beauty of the human rainbow.
With the psalmist we proclaim that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Awed and humbled we take our place in creation. We would honor you by how we live on the earth. We would honor you by the way we are in relationship with others. We would honor you by the way we proclaim the breadth and height and depth of you.
We seek you in our brothers and sisters who worship in different ways, use different language, and call you by other names. Steep us in the unity of you and cause us reach toward one another in love.
We seek you in the words hidden in our sacred scripture, even as we honor your revealing in the sacred texts of other traditions. We join with the world’s people of every race color and creed in a wearied prayer for peace:
***In the places we hold out to you and one another and prayer each week: Syria and Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, Uganda and Sudan.
***In the places that have left our immediate memory but struggle still: Algeria and Angola, The Central African Republic and The Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, Kenya and Mali, Rwanda, Senegal and Somalia.
How we need the light of your word to shine in our world. We are overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the war in our world. We are immobilized because it does not appear that anything we do will make a difference. Light our path one step at a time as we stumble toward your dream for the world. Light our inward path as we trip over our part in making the world as it is. Light the way the forward with the truth of your word as it shines in the sacred texts of every faith, the humble journey every heart centered in you, the gathering of every group that seeks you. By whatever name you are known, may all your people serve you.
Amen.
Leave a Reply