Gracious and Loving God, we come before You today, humbled by the weight of our own inadequacies, aware of our unworthiness to stand in Your presence. We hear the call of Isaiah echoing through our hearts, that ancient cry: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And like Isaiah, our first instinct is to shrink back, to point to our flaws and our fears, to say, “Here I am, Lord, but I am not enough.” But God, You do not call the perfect or the powerful—you call the willing, the broken, the ones who feel like they have nothing to offer. You see in us what we do not see in ourselves.
Just as You called Isaiah to go and proclaim a message of justice and mercy, so too You call us, Your people, to rise up in this moment of uncertainty and fear. We confess that so often we feel overwhelmed. We look around at our world—at our nation—and see a landscape marked by hatred, division, and fear. We see a country where so many feel unheard, unsafe, or unseen—where those on the margins are pushed even further out, their voices drowned out by the loud, oppressive rhetoric that seeks to divide us.
God, we lift up our hearts today for those who are scared and uncertain, for those who fear the future, for those whose rights are under attack, for those who suffer in silence. We pray for our immigrant siblings, who face hostility and separation from families. We pray for our siblings in the LGBTQIA+ community, who are targeted and told they do not belong. We pray for our Black siblings, who continue to bear the weight of systemic racism and violence. We pray for the poor, the hungry, the homeless—those whose cries for justice seem to fall on deaf ears. We know, God, that You hear them all, but so often, we do not listen.
Jesus, when You called Your first disciples, You did not call the powerful or the perfect. You called fishermen—ordinary and flawed —who felt unworthy of the calling. And yet, You said, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” You saw something in them that they did not see in themselves, and You saw in them the potential to change the world. Help us, O God, to hear Your call in our own lives, to see the ways we too are invited to serve, to heal, to fight for justice. May we be willing to follow You into the uncomfortable places, to speak out when others remain silent, and to act when others are paralyzed by fear.
In this season of uncertainty, help us to be Your hands and feet in the world. Let us not be complicit in the hatred or exclusion of others. Let us reject the politics of division and fear, and instead embrace the politics of mercy, love and welcome. May we offer sanctuary to the refugee, stand in solidarity with the oppressed, and work tirelessly to dismantle systems that harm and exclude. Let us be the ones who speak truth to power, who advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves, and who work toward a world that reflects Your justice, peace, and love.
God, we know that we are not alone in this work. You are with us, and You have given us one another. May we be a community that encourages, strengthens, and holds each other accountable. May we be a community that recognizes that our liberation is bound up with the liberation of others. And may we remember always that You do not call us because we are worthy, but because You have a plan to use our brokenness and our humanity to bring about something greater than ourselves.
We ask for the courage to follow You, even when the path seems unclear or the cost feels too great. We pray all of these things in the name of Jesus, the One who took on flesh to show us what it looks like to walk in Your way and with the words that he taught us to pray, knowing that in them, we find the heart of Your call:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom,
And the power, and the glory,
Forever and ever. Amen.