Hear our voices, Lord, as we pray.
We stand in awe that the words of our lips could even reach your ears.
Yet, in your grace, you hear our cry from the highest and lowest of places.
From hospital rooms to the city jail,
from the unemployment office to the board room,
from this church house to the very ends of the earth,
we are never far from you.
For in you we live and move and have our being.
So, most intimate God, hear our supplications for those we know and love:
for the sick and dying, for the homeless and the hungry,
for the disillusioned and the hopeless, be not far from us for you are our hope.
For the gift of sabbath rest, we give you our thanks.
Remind us again today that we don’t keep the world spinning.
Remind us again that we don’t bring the rain and the harvest to the field.
It was you, O God, who laid the foundations of the world.
It was you who separated the light from the darkness.
It was you who brought order out of chaos.
It was you who commanded every morning since the first morning broke.
We were nowhere to be found until you created us in your image.
You promise a day when steadfast love and faithfulness will meet,
when righteousness and peace will kiss each other,
when faithfulness will spring up from the ground
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
But we have preferred a different world.
In our foolishness, we have elected leaders who have done us harm.
We have invented currencies that only benefit the wealthy.
And we have created an intelligence that carries the capacity to destroy us.
And it can only be called artificial, for we could never place within it a soul or spirit.
O God, we are so often children acting like adults.
But have pity on us, O God, for we are your children,
and sometimes we do foolish things.
Let this Sabbath day be a reminder of how we should live every day,
mindful of how you love us regardless of how much we produce or accomplish.
For today is a day simply to be -– to be still in your presence,
and to acknowledge that you alone are God.
In our stillness may we please you.
We pray in the name of the One who is Lord even of the sabbath,
the One who taught us to pray saying:
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.
Amen.