Dear Friends,
I am on vacation for the next two Sundays. I have arranged for several links to worship services of my colleagues for you to join if you wish on those two Sundays. I will not be writing a sermon this week but wanted to still have something for you. I am including a prayer from a book by Ted Loder called My Heart in My Mouth; Prayers for Our Lives. I hope you find it both comforting and inspiring. I will miss all of you! Stay well and be safe!
Blessings, Rev Carol
Hover Over Us
God of passionate patience and lively waiting, in whatever way you choose, be with us in our eagerness and in our uneasiness as we balance on the edge of a newness disguised as familiar, a mystery lurking in the taken-for-granted, a discovery waiting in the common, a love fevering to be expressed, a hope waiting to be born out of pain, and the wonder of it all as it hushes our hearts and disquiets our certainties.
God, without you we are truly scared stiff of making mistakes, of being ridiculed or rejected or missing out in our always fumbling uncertainties.
So we pray that your Spirit will hover over us to enable us to separate, with you, the light from the darkness in the change that seeks to shape us, and which we seek creatively to shape.
We pray that your Spirit lift us and encourage us to keep getting up and going on, no matter how many times we have tripped up and fallen crying down.
We pray that your Spirit empower us to crack the smothering crust of deadening habits and goad us to set out after fresh dreams.
We pray that your Spirit liberate and lead us in laboring for healing for the broken, justice for the exploited, chances for the oppressed, peace for the violated and the violent of the earth.
So move in and among us that we may grow in your Spirit, rejoice in your kingdom, and live with passion this amazing life that, by your grace, is in us and that we are gratefully in. Amen