We have begun this service stating the obvious –that God is here.
How often God is present when our hearts are far from him.
How often God is within us and we are outside of ourselves.
Worship is the time and space to realign our lives with the life of God,
to re-orient our lives to God’s life,
to bend our will to the perfect will of God.
Worship and prayer help us to restore the balance of our lives –
and there has been much this week to cause us to lose our balance.
But as we just sang moments ago:
Motherlike, God gently bears us.
It is the work of God’s Spirit to bring us peace
regardless of the external tempest of life
and the Spirit does that with unutterable groanings.
Let us turn our hearts to God, for God himself is with us.
Let us pray:
Holy, compassionate, and ever present God,
We gather before you, O King of Heaven, to bring you the tribute of our hearts
for you have ransomed, healed, restored, and forgiven us.
And our praise can never exceed your goodness to us.
Yet in troubled times our fears and worries can so easily eclipse
the reality of your goodness in our everyday lives.
What we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears this week
has left us unsettled and fearful and confused.
We lament the murder of Charlie Kirk.
We lament all those who were killed before him.
We lament the anger and hatred that lead to murder.
We lament the dishonesty of our culture and the twisting of the truth.
We lament the lack of integrity and lack of humility
that permeates our society.
How weary we are with the culture we have created.
And how weary you must be with our lamentations.
But you are our hope; and our prayer will not be silenced.
You have called us to just such a time as this –
to bear witness to the truth that you do not give up on us.
You are the God who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one lost sheep.
Your love for us is searching and relentless.
And so in the midst of our lamentation, we will not give up on hope,
for you are the way in our wandering and confusion .
In the midst of our lamentation we will not give up on speaking truth,
for you are the truth.
In the midst of our lamentation we will not give up on life,
for your love is stronger than death.
You, Lord Jesus, bore witness to our fears and our worries
and you spoke peace to the storm and told your disciples not to fear.
Don’t let the trauma of our days cause us to break faith with our awakened hearts; for our hearts have been awakened to a love and a grace and a truth
greater than the evil and suffering that would eclipse your presence.
So now we look to you, O God, to re-orient our lives.
Bend our wills to your own.
Teach us to guard our tongues.
Restore our tenderheartedness, lest our hearts grow hard and cold.
May your angels, your messengers, come to us in our need,
bearing a message of “”Peace, be still.”
We pray in the name of the One who is the the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
Even Jesus Christ, 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.