Pastoral Prayer for March 3, 2024

Our pastoral prayer this morning comes to us from Ted Loder:

God of power, strengthen us to help shape a country

where our children will be free of the burdens

of racism and sexism, fear and exploitation,

violence and indifference, greed and pollution;

where all people work with dignity,

are rewarded fairly, and respected fully;

where labor, rest, play, and worship

are in blessed, graceful balance.

God of glory, strengthen us to help shape a society

where the value of families is reflected

in decent homes, good schools,

safe neighborhoods, mutually earned trust,

glad gatherings, respected differences;

where older persons are not forgotten,

trivialized, marginalized, or brutalized,

but honored for their experience,

cherished for their gifts, sought for their wisdom.

God of mercy, strengthen us to help shape a nation

where diversity is a source of enrichment,

compassion is common, life’s poetry realized,

suffering lightened through sharing,

justice attended, joy pervasive, hope lived,

the hum of the universe heard,

and together with you and with each other

we build what is good, true, beautiful,

and worthy of your generosity to us,

an echo of your kingdom.

With the passion of the prophets,

and in the insistent spirit of Jesus,

we say Amen and Amen.