Sunday,
February 11, 2001
Scripture Lesson: Luke 6:17-24
Sermon: "In the eye of a storm"
Prayers of the people concluding with the Lord's Prayer:
God of mercy and peace, we come before you this day trusting that you have drawn near to us. As you came face to face with the great crowd who came from all across Israel seeking to be touched by your healing power, so we have come from our near and distant places, to the stillness of this place, to receive, by your grace, that which will heal and restore us.
We confess that:
| the
distance between our mortality and your immortality, the distance from our "timeboundness" and your eternity, the distance between our socially constructed cultures and your realm of peace and well being, |
stretches the limits of our understanding of you, and narrows the breadth of our participation in the possibilities that you have for us.
So, we trust that you have drawn near to us in Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, that you have closed the distance in Him, that you have granted us wisdom in discerning your ways through Him, and that we have been blessed by Him with His gifts of faithfulness, forgiveness and love.
Where there are those who suffer from the tragedies of natural disaster or human error, O God, let the enormity of their grief and pain not be compounded with indifference toward their struggle to rebuild life.
Where there are those who suffer from the tragedies of illness or disability, O God, let the weight of their burden not be increased by attitudes of shame or blame, but bless them with a caring that transforms their despair into hope.
Where there are those who suffer from the tragedies of broken relationship, O God, let them not be wounded further by exclusion of rejection, but draw them near to the warmth and security of this community that heals with its acceptance.
And, where there are those who suffer from the tragedies of aging, O God, let not the challenge of living each day with dignity and worth be made more difficult by their being known only by their frailty, but share with them the foundation of life that we have in Christ, that they are known by you as a "beloved child of God".