God, your goodness grows
like little seeds scattered on the soil
finding their way, taking root
extending out and reaching toward the sun’s clear light.
God, may your goodness take root in our lives,
in the obvious places, yes,
in our our gifts, in our work, in our commitments, in our friendships
but also in the places we may not suspect—
in the underdeveloped parts ourselves, in that next thing you may be calling us to do or to be or to dream— God, may your goodness grow even in what we cannot yet see.
God, on this day where we honor our fathers—we pray your goodness may grow in them, fathers by birth or by adoption, by family or by example. Give our fathers the grace to love and to heal, to guide and to learn, to laugh and to cry, to build up, and— to bless the lives of all those in their care…
God, on this week where we celebrate Juneteenth—marking the end of slavery and celebrating African-American freedom, we pray that your liberating freedom might grow! Within us and among us.
We mourn the ways that we—your church, particularly the white church in America — has failed to fertilize freedom’s soil and too often failed to let your goodness grow—for all your children. Help us not delay your liberating love today… for all your children near and far—from the rubble in Gaza to the fields of Ukraine to the hills Kampala, Uganda to the backyards, byways and city streets of Winston-Salem.
God, let your goodness grow as Jesus tells us in his parables and in his prayers. So we pray together as he taught us, 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.