To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Psalm 123:1
We turn our eyes to you, O God.
You are far above the human fray: the conflicting reports, the baseless accusations, the stressful conversations.
You see far beyond our daily worries, yet stay intimately connected to us.
We place it all before you, trusting that you care for us, all of us, without exception.
Give us the tools we need to serve you in the coming weeks, caring for all people with love, holding out the possibility of justice, living as representatives of your grace and mercy.
We pray in Christ’s name.
Amen.
As always, you are welcome to share the prayer the image, or use them in worship.
One: I will sing the praises of my God; Many: We will bless God’s name forever and ever.
One: Every day we will bless God Many: And praise the name of God forever and ever.
One: God is great, and our praise must be great, too. Many: God’s greatness is hard for us to understand fully.
One: Our ancestors told our elders, and our elders told us. Many: We will tell the coming generation about the mighty works of God.
One: God’s abundant and overwhelming goodness is famous. Many: We will share it with all people. All: Let us sing our praise out loud!
Call to Confession
We come to worship carrying both our ordinary burdens and the extraordinary stresses of this difficult time. We add up what others have and subtract what is missing in our lives. We compare and contrast and compete and calculate. Let’s stop doing the math of envy and give it to God.
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, sometimes other people seem to get more than we do. They always seem to have the advantage. How will we ever have enough? We bring you our stress and our worries. We bring you our frustration and annoyance. We bring you our resentment and our anger. These are all things that can separate us from you. In this moment, as we come to you in silence, help us to be honest with ourselves and with you. Have mercy on us.
(Allow a time of silence.)
Assurance of Pardon
One: God does have mercy on us. Many: We are grateful, because we need it. One: Beloved Children of God, we are forgiven. This is the Good News that brings new life. Many: We thank God for it.
You’re welcome to use or adapt the liturgy above and share the image below in whatever way is useful this week.
The Psalmist wrote, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” God has the compassion of a deeply loving parent. Beloved children of God, whatever troubling us today, let us bring it to God in prayer.
Prayer of Confession (Unison)
Holy One, like children afraid to tell their parents about something they have done wrong, we may hesitate to open our hearts to you.
We have trouble making peace when we disagree. We have trouble forgiving ourselves for the things we have done and the things we have left undone. We have trouble forgiving each other for hurts caused and words spoken and things forgotten.
Yet we know nothing is ever truly secret from you, and so we will stop talking, and pray you will listen to our hearts beating the rhythm of repentance.
(Allow a time of silence.)
Assurance of Pardon (Responsive)
One: God’s love for us is great and steadfast. Many: God’s love for us is as high as the heavens are above the earth. One: Beloved in Christ, we are forgiven. This is the Good News that brings new life. Many: We thank God for it.
You’re welcome to use the prayer or the image below in whatever way is useful this week.
