The parable of the sheep and goats. ~ Matthew 25
The Lord has shown you what is good. He has told you what he requires of you. You must act with justice. You must love to show mercy. And you must be humble as you live in the sight of your God. ~ Micah 6:8 (NIRV)
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NLT)
As I travel through the bad and good,
keep me traveling the way I should;
Where I see no way to go
you’ll be telling me the way I know:
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.
From ‘One More Step Along the World I Go’ – Words and Music by Sydney Carter * (2015-2004)
Father and Creator of all, while our US companions ‘on-the-way’ celebrate Thanksgiving, we remember with profound gratitude those indigenous First Nations people who befriended the strangers come among them, uninvited, refugees from persecution and marginalization. They offered the strangers friendship and shared their knowledge of how to live and survive in a different environment. Without their generosity of spirit – despite possible fear of the ‘other’ and differing lifestyles – survival of the first Pilgrim men, women and children, would have been even more precarious.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer and receive our thanksgiving.
Today we weep and cry out in protest over the violence and persecution by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and other agents of the current US government, not only towards refugees, but towards their fellow citizens and immigrants with legal status in America. The failure of mainstream media, courts, institutions and so many in positions of influence and power is finally and thankfully being galvanized into action. The truth indeed shall set us free.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer and receive our thanksgiving.
We have failed to learn from history, how this chaotic miasma of evil could take over a country so quickly. Until it happens on our doorstep, we avert our eyes, our mouths offer denigrating and often ignorant platitudes, ‘Why don’t the people….’, ‘It couldn’t happen here…’. But it can and is happening in so many of the countries we call ‘home’. Yet if we test our DNA, most of us can trace ancestry from several countries or even parts of the world. We are truly ‘all God’s children’. Eternal God of all, each one of us is offered a place in your family, whatever our status in human terms: give us the courage to ensure that all feel welcome at your table.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer and receive our thanksgiving.
We give thanks for those who courageously speak truth to power, reporting events that some want to keep hidden. We remember those journalists, bloggers, activists and ordinary people going about their daily business who have paid with their lives or been tortured or kidnapped and without due process, exiled or imprisoned in places with little or no regard for law and order, human rights and dignity. The roll call grows ever longer: among them Israel, Gaza, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Honduras, Russia, the USA, the UK, Nicaragua, and Sudan.
For all those whose names we do not know, lighten the darkness of their hopelessness and fear, with your love, light and healing presence. Comfort them, their families and break through the evil stranglehold of their persecutors so they too turn from the darkness of soul to your forgiving light and love.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer and receive our thanksgiving.
Jesus, bearer of our sorrows,
Jesus, healer of our sickness of body, mind or spirit,
Jesus, shepherd of your sheep,
renew in us your gift of healing whether physical, mental or spiritual.
Help us to reconcile and break down the mistrust in our communities driven by fear, and manufactured hatred of ‘the other’.
Restore to us the faith we need, the courage to be vulnerable, to listen and see beyond first impressions.
Help us see our neighbors as brothers and sisters in whatever guise they may appear, learning from each other.
Send us forth to preach your gospel through our example of humility, love and respect especially when it is difficult.
Send us forth to heal, protect and enable your children to grow into the people you created them to be.
Send us forth to feed the hungry, literally and spiritually, and help us empower them in freedom and strength to in turn help others.
Challenge us Lord.
God of all, fill us with your Ruach (Holy Spirit).
Disturb and transform us to be vibrant, compassionate channels of your Grace.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer and receive our thanksgiving.
Father and Creator of all, you for whom nothing is too great,
you for whom nothing is too small to come within your care,
help us to discover your will for us,
help us to follow your way for us,
help us to trust your plans for us.
Cast out our fear.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer and receive our thanksgiving.
Help us always remember that you God keep a generous table. ** Amen.
* The English pacifist and hymn writer Sydney Carter was involved in both Anglican and Quaker communities. Of his hymns, including this one, he notes, “They are songs which can be sung in a Christian context, but they all had to mean something to me because I was often on the edge of not believing.”
WORDS: Sydney Carter (1915-2004) MUSIC: ‘SOUTHCOTE’ Sydney Carter (1915-2004): arr. Lionel Dakers (1924-2003) Words and Music © 1971 Stainer & Bell, Ltd. (admin. Hope Publishing Company)
** Rosemary Power, in a prayer in Morning Worship online from Iona Abbey
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