When we worship, we gather with other people, and together we lift our hearts and minds to the God who made us. When we worship, we recognize that we are not sufficient in ourselves, and that we need help from beyond ourselves. When we worship, we acknowledge our need of God, and of His guidance in our lives. When we worship, we affirm that God alone is worthy of our ultimate thanks and praise. Therefore, let us with confidence worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
Loving God, Thou hast created us for reasons known ultimately only to Thyself. We praise Thee first for the very fact that we exist, not knowing exactly why that is so. We praise Thee for granting a fullness and richness to our lives, and how we are connected with one another, simply because we all share space in communities and nations and in the world itself. Help us, O God, to rise above ourselves and our own lives to an awareness of and appreciation for the life of the entire cosmos. Grant us vision to see beyond our own personal concerns and needs to the needs and concerns of others, and especially of the entire created order. Make us good stewards of creation, Lord God, so that we may thus express our gratitude to Thee in ordinary undertakings.
We thank Thee for people with whom we share common beliefs and values, and for the unity which results from those shared standards for living. We thank Thee also for people who have other beliefs and values, and whose convictions cause us to re-evaluate the convictions we hold deeply. We marvel at the multiplicity of all Thy daughters and sons on this earth, and all the ways in which we are very different from and also similar to one another. Help us to accept the humanity of one another, even when we might reject the ideas or behavior of others around us or who live far away from us.
We pray for those who currently are feeling very hemmed in by life: those who live in nations where there is major political upheaval; those who recently have experienced a great loss of any variety, and who wonder if or how they shall get through the emptiness they now sense; those who are seriously ill; those who are elderly, and either want life to end or who are terrified by its approach. We pray for the Congress and President of the United States, asking Thee to inspire them to give up any inflexibility or partisanship which pervades their thinking on behalf of the good of the body politic. Our need for Thy grace is strong, Lord God, and our ability to reflect that grace seems so weak. Be with us in every aspect of our lives, and teach us always to trust in Thee. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, now praying as he taught his disciples, saying, Our Father….