Pastoral Prayer for December 10, 2023

Our Pastoral Prayer this morning is another by Prayer-Poem

by Rich Orloff that nicely echoes many of the concerns brought up

in today’s sermon.

A Prayer Under a Tree

I lay under a tree the other day

A big tree

And I looked at a single leaf

I imagined I was the leaf

And I imagined the leaf saying:

I’m not like the leaves on those branches

far from me

I am my own leaf

Then I looked at the whole tree

And the thousands of leaves on the tree

And I looked at myself again

and thought:

Forgive me for the sin of believing

in the illusion of independence

Forgive me for pretending I’m not attached

to something larger than just me

Forgive me for confusing uniqueness

with separation

Forgive me for resenting all the reminders

I can’t do this by myself

Bless my tree, even if I can’t control it

Thank you for the majesty of its branches

And the strength of its roots

And the good fortune

That I was born as part of something so

beautiful

Amen.