Prayers for 19-25 June (A) - In at the Deep End

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Sunday between 19 and 25 June, Year A

(Proper 7, 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Inspired by Matthew 10:24-39 and Genesis 21:8-21.

Opening prayers or Call to worship

Lord,

we want to praise you

but suspect we are not very good at it;

we want to serve you

but can’t see where to start.

We want to be a blessing to each other

but wonder if someone else could do it better.

We would very much like to change the world

but struggled to even get through this week.

Lord

we are here for you, feeling uncertain,

but we ask you to take us anyway:

mend us, shape us

and use us to bring your heaven into this place.

Amen.

Intercession

Lord,

Thank you for the joy and security you have given us through our church, our friends

and our families;

thank you for the comfort and encouragement we have found

in the simple certainties we have shared.

But we hear you calling us out of our safe places,

beckoning us onward to journey uncomfortably with you,

and we know it’s time to be thrown in at the deep end.

So,

thank you for putting us in places we didn’t know we wanted to be;

give us the courage to accept whatever roles you have for us  

and help us to fill our surroundings with your transforming presence.

Thank you for putting us with people we find difficult;

help us to love the ways they are different, to have peace when we find them annoying,

and give us the good grace to see your image in the face of each person around us.

Thank you for giving us tasks that we don’t feel suited to;

reveal in us the strengths and abilities that we’ve forgotten you put there,

the determination to have a go, and the humility to know when to ask for help.

Thank you for raising issues that we don’t know the answers to;

remind us that though you are all wise, we are allowed to be full of questions.

Help us to support those around us who are struggling with questions of their own.

Thank you for encouraging us to doubt and question

things that we were certain of just yesterday:

as we open our minds and our hearts to let the fresh air of your spirit blow through,

help us to bring your unchanging love to the people of a constantly changing world.

Thank you for placing within us a vision of a better, fairer, safer world:

give us the openness to work with anyone who cares so that we can bring real change,

improving lives and creating better futures for all, near and far.

[especially…]

Thank you for filling us with a love that is irresistible.

Your love is greater than any distress, any apathy, any hate

so let us be the means by which that love flows freely into this world,

illuminating the dark places, mending the broken, finding all that was lost.

Thank you Lord for making us part of that great mission.

Amen.

© Rod Belt 2014