Pastoral Prayer for December 17, 2023

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

Hidden God,

     wherever you are

          in your own kind of space,

               we watch and wait for you

                    to startle us to wakeful newness

                         in this Advent season.

Come and thrust into us

     the spirit of daring and courage

          to make flesh on earth

               a bit of the kingdom of heaven.

Come to open the inns

     of our minds and hearts

          to the miracles of your compassion

               and purpose as Jesus demonstrated them.

Come and make your own transforming way

     in the desert of our confusion

          and wilderness of me and mine

               so we may walk with Jesus the hard way

                    of justice, mercy, and peace among the people of the earth.

Come and lift up the valleys

     of our discouragement and doubt and denial,

          and make level the mountains of our greed and pride,

               so we may see your glory revealed once more

                    in us and in all our brothers and sisters,

                         from the shepherds least to the magi lofty.

Come lace our songs, our shopping, our celebrations

     with your mystery and strange magnificence,

          and let us sense it in the small strange stirrings

               of the earth and of our hearts, now and always.

Amen.