Good morning.
Today is Saturday,
November 28th,
2020.
Oh Lord,
Let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to God,
The three in one,
Creator,
Redeemer,
And sustainer.
As it was in the beginning is now and will be forever.
Amen.
Come,
Let us bow down and worship.
Let us kneel before the Lord,
Our maker.
Remind yourself that you are in God's presence.
Simply notice how God may be speaking to you today.
Let yourself dwell on a word or phrase that catches your attention and let your heart respond to God in prayer.
Please repeat these words.
I will enter your gates with thanksgiving.
I will dance in your courts with praise.
Psalm 139 verses 11 through 17.
If I say the darkness will hide me and the night will be my only light.
Even darkness won't be dark to you.
The night will shine like the day.
The darkness and light are the same to you.
You created my inmost being and stitched me together in my mother's womb.
For all these mysteries,
I thank you.
For the wonder of myself,
For the wonder of your works,
My soul knows it well.
My frame was not hidden from you while I was being made in that secret place knitted together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my body even there.
All of my days were written in your book.
All of them planned before even the first of them came to be.
How precious your thoughts are to me,
Oh God.
How impossible to number them.
Please repeat these words.
I will enter your gates with thanksgiving.
I will dance in your courts with praise.
Our prayer this morning was written by Walter Brueggemann and the title is We Are Second,
You Are First.
Before our well-being,
There was your graciousness.
Before our delight,
There was your generosity.
Before our joy,
There was your good will.
We are second and you are first.
You are there initially with your graciousness,
Your generosity,
Your good will.
And we receive from your inscrutable goodness,
Grace upon grace,
Gift upon gift,
Life upon life.
Because you are there at the beginning,
At all our beginnings.
For a quick glimpse,
We move out beyond our competence,
Our productivity,
Our self-sufficiency.
In our new freedom,
What we glimpse is you.
Outpouring yourself unreservedly in the midst of our hurt and toward our hopes.
You are there in the splendor of your self-giving.
So we speak our timid,
Trembling praise back to you.
Timid because we are no match for your goodness.
Trembling because our praise means turning our life to you.
And we do not turn loose easily.
But we do turn loose to you.
Source and goal of our very life.
Our gratitude arises out of the dailiness of our well-being.
Of meals regularly before us.
Of folks regularly caring for us.
Of homes regularly warm and safe.
Of sleep regularly refreshing.
Of new days regularly given against the darkness.
Of work regularly filling our days with order and dignity.
And in our taken-for-granted regularity,
We discern your abiding and fidelity that holds our worlds toward well-being.
Our gratitude wells up in the midst of such regularity.
New worlds spoken,
New children born,
New vistas opened,
New risks taken,
New words uttered that heal.
We dare confess that in these startling breakpoints,
We glimpse your powerful care,
Which runs beyond our capacity to manage and beyond our exhausted capacity to cope.
You.
After all our best efforts,
It is you who hold and you who break.
And we are grateful.
In the name of Jesus who taught us to pray.
Our Father which art in heaven.
Eternal God,
Earthmaker,
Pain-bearer,
Life-giver.
Source of all that is and all that shall be.
Not only Father but Mother of us all.
May the hallowing of your name echo through the universe.
May the way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world.
May your heavenly will be done by all creative beings.
May your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another,
Forgive us.
In times of temptation and test,
Strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure,
Spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil,
Free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love now and forever.
Amen.
Now my friends,
May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ go with you wherever he may send you today.
May he guide you through the wilderness,
Protect you through the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you.
May he bring you home rejoicing.
Once again into our doors.
May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ go in peace.
