Gracious and loving God, we give thanks for the gift of being together on this day, for a community that includes not only those in this room, but those at home or in a hospital room or nursing home, hotel or college dorm. We rejoice in all who have found their way to this beloved community.
As we reflect on our Life Together, we recognize that You created us in all our wild diversity and had the audacity to declare us GOOD! We confess that too often we act in flawed and imperfect ways, yet we are held together by your sustaining love and by our shared dependence on one another.
We give thanks for those among us whose hands and feet are busy doing the work of Jesus—reaching out, helping, caring, healing—always working to expand the circle of this community.
We rejoice in those among us whose eyes and ears are constantly alert to see and hear what others might miss, always paying attention to those who are easily ignored or overlooked, making us all better by helping us open our own eyes and ears to what we might otherwise miss.
We celebrate those among us who use their minds to bring big ideas into reality, to plan and organize, to teach and challenge, to provide insight and understanding as our community charts the future of our life together.
We are grateful for those among us with deep emotions, who lead with their heart, never hesitating to speak a kind word, always ready to act with compassion and offer a welcoming embrace.
Thank you, O God, for this amazing gift of our Life Together.
We come this morning knowing also that our bodies are fragile and vulnerable and that many in our midst wake up every day with bodies in pain. Others are facing the realities of illness, the inevitability of aging, or the challenges of disabilities or mental illness. For all who suffer on this day, we pray for your comforting presence. We also pray that as we navigate our Life Together, we will find ways to care for and support one another through all of life’s difficult circumstances.
Today we recognize that many in the larger community of our state, our country, and in faraway places throughout the world, are facing enormous devastation and distress. For those still reeling from the storms and floods that have changed their lives forever, we pray that glimmers of hope and healing are beginning to make their way through the darkness and despair.
For volunteers and professionals who are working tirelessly to meet overwhelming needs, we ask for strength. For doctors and nurses, for teachers and students, for parents and children, we ask for patience and guidance in the face of so much disruption. For other beloved communities who are gathering today in parking lots and makeshift sanctuaries in Asheville and Weaverville and Swannanoa, and hundreds of other places across the Appalachian Mountains, we give thanks for the hope and meaning being offered and found as they experience your presence through their own gathered community.
We also remember this morning those in places ravaged by war and unrest. we pray for moments of peace and safety in the midst of violence that seems to have no end and we continue to pray for the miracle of lasting peace.
As our nation enters the final stretch of this contentious election season, we pray that civility will prevail and that the fabric of our Life Together as a nation will hold together.
Dear God, as we seek to be the body of Christ and live out your message of love and grace in all we do, may we look to Jesus, who showed us a more excellent way of being in the world and 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.