Prayers 1 17 99
Call to Worship
I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Invocation
Almighty God, we are like jet planes trying to land in dense fog, like the homeless looking for a warm place to sleep, like starving souls seeking living bread, like giant sunflowers turning to the sun, like lost children seeking their parents when everything is spent: so we come to you seeking hope after fear, vision after the fog, and homecoming after being lost. Satisfy our deep longings with your presence and peace. Amen.
Prayer of God’s People
Dear most merciful and loving Father God, come into our life today so that we may know you more closely. Set aside all those human excuses of putting you off at a distance because we know what you might say to us if we listened. In this busy and frenetic world that we live, help us to slow it down. Help us to stop spinning around from one thing to another, so that we may hear you still, small voice whispering your plan for our lives. Remind us again that it is your will that counts, not ours.
Touch our friends and family members who are in desperate need of your love, and care, and most of all your healing powers. Continue to be with Virginia Toy as she proceeds with rehabilitation which we know will be a long journey. Be with Jane Lee Quon and her entire family as they render support and encouragement to Virginia as well as to each other. Work your guiding hand of healing with…. There are many in our community of faith who are under the weather and are need of rest and slow recovery. Bless them and comfort them.
We again pray for our fragile and fractured world in which we live. We confess that we and leaders around this globe have more often accepted the world’s wisdom as our guide. We have been impressed by the power of weapons and the importance of high positions. Sometimes we measure worth by the number of possessions that we command. We have doubted the power of the cross to save us. Turn us around, holy God, that we might be blessed by you.
And dear God, we have been so greatly blessed by your constant love and forgiveness of what we do. All around our church, we see and can feel the excitement of being a church family. We hear singing in rooms, praying in the sanctuary, reciting the Bible in the Sunday school. Wonderful things are happening because when we trust our lives with you, you grant us your tender mercies and blessings to carry on your mission in Chinatown and in the entire Bay Area.
Thank you God for teaching us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you. In the name of Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together, “Our Father….”
Offertory
God is neither pleased with burnt offerings nor impressed by the size of our gifts. God wants our full commitment and devotion, of which our giving in these moments is only a symbol. God calls you and me to live lives of mercy and peacemaking all the days of our lives.
Offertory Prayer
O God of Life and Forgiveness, we devote ourselves and these tokens of our thankfulness to the work of your church and its ministry on earth. Bless us and our offering, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Benediction
May the Lord bless you and keep you: The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.