Pastoral Prayer for October 8, 2023

Our Pastoral Prayer is from Walter Brueggemann:

We are in free fall:

     We are bewildered about our economy,

          losing houses and jobs;

     We are anxious about our moral infrastructure

          and losing our neighborliness;

     We are appalled at the violence

          and losing our sense of safety;

We are in free fall:

     Tonight we will watch and listen

          for scenarios of our future;

     We will learn about the market

          as our last best hope;

     We will hear truth and slogans;

     We will watch images and constructed reality;

But when we are done and turn off the set,

     the ghosts of disorientation

          will still be strong in the land.

From the free fall not yet to its bottom,

we reach toward you

               and address you.

     You are our safety net;

     You are our comfort in this age

          and in the age to come;

     You are our summons to deep newness.

Our life is about you,

     and then about our neighbor,

          and finally about ourselves.

Hear us amid the free fall:

     Bottom us out in new possibility

     according to your faithful mercy.

Amen.