leadinginworship

Advent prayer for people who don't really believe in God

These are the things that I say out loud.
There is beauty in this season of celebration:
children waiting for presents,
hospitality being prepared,
music floating, lights sparkling,
and even strangers smiling at each other.
Waiting is something I am doing.
I am waiting for peace on earth,
I am waiting for an end to hostilities,
I am waiting for healing and hope.
If there was a God, I would ask why,
and lay out all the suffering I’ve seen under the sun,
and demand an accounting.
 I do the same for us, the global us,
and I can’t make out an answer.
Life is so good and so ruined.
In spite of everything, I want love to well up,
still hoping for a better future, still trying,
still wanting to live, and to make hope shine
in the eyes of every child on earth
this Christmas morning.

Dark Imaginings

The advent of darkness brings with it
a host of fearful thoughts crowding;
sickness striking and life changing forever, 
debts looming and bills that can't get paid,
governments floundering and security teetering,
nature hurling storms and earthquakes everywhere,
humankind falling, evil actions blighting all that's good.
Scrolling the news in my cozy bed,
I rehearse this night time litany too many times to count,
adding it all up, building a tower of catastrophe,
and I pace its' floors until the moonlight
touches my cheek, recalling me to life
not death, not death. 
The wind speaks through the eaves of the house,
the distant train whistles that we are on the move,
and there are these warm blankets.
Although I fear the future
the present moment is fine.
I breathe out these dark imaginings 
breathing into this present,
believing it and it's mine.

A prayer for muddlers

Hear our prayer for muddlers everywhere.
People with good intentions doing the wrong thing, diligently.
Seekers heading in the wrong direction, energetically.
Helpers choosing the wrong methods, heartily.
Do-gooders rushing in to make a difference,
not realizing that the difference they are making
is not in a positive direction.
It’s so easy to see this in others;
give us insight into our own missteps,
our own misguided blunderings.
We aren’t setting out to do harm,
and we truly want to help,
help our unhelpfulness.
Give us ears to hear the voices of victims,
as we ask them what they need, what they want.
Take our pride and desire for recognition,
and replace it with humility and compassion.
We want to be your servants,
walking faithfully in your footsteps,
day by day, day in and day out.

The God Who Calls

You are the God who calls.
You are hiding in the pauses of the winter wind
whipping around the corners of my house.
You are present in the space between the opening petals
of the first spring crocus.
You are there in the silence behind
the crickets chirping on the hot summer evening.
You are in the autumn aching for what’s been lost
when all is fallen.
You call to us from the other side of Eden,
your voice emanating from deserts, dreams,
whirlwinds and burning bushes.
And always on the mountaintop we find you;
in wide vistas and clear air,
whispering to us as we look down on all we know.

I want you to be the God who calls me.
Here hear my late night late life lament.
I’ve missed the train for glory 
too many times to count,
a no-show in the parade of saints,
absent without cause in the angel army.
I’m here today to say, “I want to hear,
help my unhearing.”
Let the words of my mouth
speak out the meditations of your heart,
truly, clearly, faithfully,
today and always.

 

 

Prayer for the Future

All-seeing God,
hear my prayer for the future that I will not see.
For all the children of my children's grandchildren,
and all the others born when this century
is a long ago memory.
Let their feet touch this good earth,
let it still be good, growing green as it always grows.
Let their hands be reaching to connect,
not grasping, not fighting.
I want to pray that we would be beyond all that,
but I think that's asking for too much.
Instead, I pray for what we have survived.
The upheavals I cannot imagine or name,
the suffering that is beyond speaking.
I pray that we could still be good,
still loving in the face of hatred,
still hoping in the face of despair,
I pray that we would be skilled at beginning again
even when it seems like the end of everything.
For you are with us.
Time can't stop you from loving us.
Your everpresent ear takes this tiny message,
and transports it forward through the years.
My dear future friends:
Believe. Love. Cherish.
Look up at the distant stars 
and say prayers for the future.
We pray together, you and I,
that hope will arrive in time.

All I Want for Christmas: A Prayer List as I Go to the Mall

This Christmas I would like…

the clear conviction

that beauty is for beholding

and that I don’t have to own

everything that gives me pleasure.

I want to have joy in gift-giving,

seeking to delight those I love.

I would like protection from over purchasing:

and reminders that more gifts

don’t always bring more delight.

I would like contentment this year,

and freedom from envy as I look at things

that I cannot afford to buy.

I would like mindfulness for Christmas,

so that as I shop I can be present to those I meet.

In busy, bustling, boisterous aisles,

I want the ability to touch people gently

with my eyes, not my elbows.

Please give me kind words

to share with store employees

who are often overworked and underpaid.

I would like lots of perspective this year,

to know how fortunate I am,

and also heaps of mercy for those who are less fortunate.

If it’s not too much trouble,

can you give me a sign, maybe a star, this year

that would orient me to the search I’m really on,

the search for a treasure,

something for a wise woman to carry

as she journeys to the birth

of a newborn Saviour.

The good book

I was always captivated by
“Once upon a time”:
the magical invitation
into a world not mine.
The world of giants and talking animals,
the world of spies and zookeepers,
pirates, pioneers and pilots--
I followed them through deserts and oceans,
deep space, rush hour traffic,
mountains and subterranean caverns.
I puzzled things out with Nancy Drew,
yearned for justice with Black Beauty,
cried with Jane Eyre,
whistled with Tom Sawyer,
and found my way to Narnia
through a dusty old wardrobe.
The stories of people long ago,
and of people yet to be,
mingled in my mind
with the stories of people just like me.
Hours spent turning pages
have helped me more than I can say
to walk in others’ footsteps
and imagine the lives they lead.
So I give thanks for authors,
for the feel of pages between my fingers,
for libraries and bookstores and friend’s shelves.
I give thanks for literacy and leisure to read.
I praise God for the good book.

A prayer for a thousand tongues

God of every tongue and nation:
thank you for the multiplicity and beauty of languages,
each one a treasure, each one unmatched and irreplaceable.
Thank you for their slow growth over time,
their plasticity and adaptability,
their ability to convey and carry culture,
the heart of a people.
As a white Canadian, I mourn the colonial decision
to declare only two languages official,
the languages of white people.
We waged war on First Nations and Inuit,
doing everything we could to eradicate their mother tongues,
kidnapping and torturing children,
trying to deafen them to the voice of their people.
For the peoples and languages that are no more,
God of memory, preserve them in your heart.
I give thanks for the resilience and strength
of indigenous people who refused to forget.
Strengthen them, and give them ingenuity
as they work to resuscitate ways of speaking
known only to small communities.
Show us our part in supporting their work.
When newcomers to Canada
feel they must shed their languages
like coats that no longer fit,
help us to be welcoming of diversity,
celebrating the plural voice.
Open our ears to the virtues of the vernacular.
Set us the multilingual task of learning our own
and each other’s languages by heart,
taking seriously the challenge of
a thousand tongues to sing your praise.

Canadian Pastoral Prayer

God of every country,
thank you for this country:
for its beauty…from coast to coast to coast,
for blue oceans on three sides,
for great prairies, vast forest and stretching tundra,
for every rushing river and great lake
for Hudson’s Bay and the islands of the north,
all created by you, giving glory to you.
We are thankful people!
Thank you for all the creatures with whom we share this country;
the polar bear and the bowhead whale,
the mighty moose and the fox,
the Canada goose and the honey bee,
the Coho salmon and the beaver.
Thank you for Canadian people, rich in cultural diversity,
from First Nations and many nations.
Thank you for cities and towns and all the little villages,
for people living on the land.
Thank you for democratic government,
we pray for wisdom and guidance for our Prime Minister _____________,
our MP ____________ and our MLA______________,
and our mayor _______________.
From local to national, give our politicians the gift of honesty,
and strength to resist temptation that power brings.
Help them use their gifts as a gift for our country’s good.
Lord, we need help in our country to live in peace.
We need help with our relationship to the land
to the air, to the water, to the creatures,
to all peoples inside our borders and outside our borders.
You have a vision of what peace is,
help us live in that peace and towards that peace.
Help us to be a people of vision, and courage, and commitment,
offering your hope and comfort to all we meet.
Be with us this week, especially with those in our congregation
who are sick in mind or body, and those who grieve,
we think especially of ______________________.
Give us strength as a church to live as citizens of your kingdom
as we work for the peace in our country, Canada.
We pray all this in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, Amen.

Guesthouse

My life is a guesthouse
and each day brings its visitors.
Years of regular customers,
rational and sensible,
ordered and predictable—
they cause no trouble.
Steady Contentment, calm Happiness,
busy Industry, pleasant Enjoyment.
Every once in a while Temper checks in,
turning the whole house upside down for a while,
but he doesn’t stay long.
Green-eyed Jealousy is a sly guest
who no one likes,
but she rarely lingers.
Take it from me,
running a guesthouse is a good life,
you wake up each day with a smile.

Then one day it all changes.
The doctor phones, results are in
and suddenly Fear is banging on my door.
He barges in uninvited
and claims the best chair
planting his muddy boots on the table.
Every other guest flees from his presence.
He’s not going anywhere fast,
and worse than that,
he invites his unpleasant friends—
Despair, Bitterness, Anger.
They’re loud and obnoxious
and they fill every room.
As they turn on the NO VACANCY sign,
I realize with a sinking feeling
that these are not visitors.
This is an occupation.

Tonight they are all talking at once,
and I can’t hear myself think.
I crouch down in a corner of what was once my life,
huddling in the tiniest outbuilding,
on the edge of everything
and it’s precisely at that moment
that I hear the insistent knocking.

It’s a hugely pregnant woman and her husband
who obviously have not read the sign.
That’s all we need right now,
some baby crying in this wilderness. 

 

*with thanks to Rumi, for his wonderful poem "Guesthouse"

Golden

The gold band stays the same,
a bit warped maybe,
the edges worn down,
some scratches.
Still hugging my ring finger
since the day
you put it there
round about an age ago.
Like your love,
still surrounding me
these many years,
still holding me
still cherishing me
still honouring me.
Thank you for being
a man of your word,
steady through all these seasons.
A partner is hard to describe,
our roots entwined so tight;
so many comings and goings
but always there’s a home
when you walk in the room.
Your voice, your laugh,
your walk are still a magnet
drawing my eyes in any crowd.
You are a good companion;
thoughtful, intelligent, funny
(you laugh at almost all my jokes).
You’ve worked hard to support us.
We’ve held our babies, raised them,
and reveled together
as we’ve watched them launch.
Sick or healthy,
through every up and down,
from east to west,
you’ve been my faithful friend.
So much behind us,
(we are rich in the Memory Bank)
who knows what’s before us.
I hope that God will gift us
with many more anniversaries
which we will ring in
with deep smiles and thankfulness
for a family, our family,
a happy golden life together.

Prayer for those who are Addicted

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us
bringing good news to the oppressed,
proclaiming liberty to the captives,
releasing the prisoners.
Great Redeemer, we need your good news
for all of us who are captive to addictions.
Good news for people who are addicted to alcohol or drugs.
Good news for people who are addicted to gambling.
Good news for people who are addicted to tobacco or food.
Good news for people who are addicted to pornography.
Good news for people who are addicted to work.
Grant liberty to all who are bound by the chains of addiction.
Grant us insight into how our habit is hurting us and our families.
Give us courage to take the first step to recovery.
Give us hope and strength to start walking the long road to freedom.
We pray for healing for the deepest hurts that chased us to addiction.
We pray for release from cravings, and a new life free from desire.
Let us not be led into temptation.
Surround us with supports.
Thank you for addiction counsellors and AA groups,
for family and friends who support and encourage.
Help our communities to walk sensitively with all who are addicted.
Most of all, thank you for insight, which you give to each one of us,
that we have choices each and every day,
that we can make choices for life,
and not for death, each and every day.
God of grace, who sent Jesus to show us the way,
hear our prayer. Amen.

Through the Open Window

Jesus’ life was bookended by the kindness of strangers.
At the beginning:  innkeepers giving the pregnant Mary shelter,
a place for newborn Jesus to rest his head.
And at the end of a terrible Friday,
Joseph of Arimathea bearing the lifeless body of Christ
to a cold dark place of rest.
Before Jesus’ first breath, and after his last one,
at the gateways of life and death,
acts of kindness.

What to do, then, about the man in the gray car
tailgating me today in heavy traffic,
his words of rage spewing like exhaust
out of his open window as he blows by.
Instantly my anger rises to meet his.
I examine myself and find him entirely guilty.
Righteously angry I almost hope to find him
sidelined by a police cruiser,
or even wrecked on the side of the road,
reaping the rewards of his recklessness.

Kindness bookended the pages of Jesus’ life.
He embodied it with every breath.
his hands grasping the grimy hands of children,
his ear tuned to the growling stomachs of the masses,
his feet walking with the lepers stride for stride,
his voice reaching into the open tomb of Lazaurs
summoning him from the dead.
Jesus even has kind words for that betrayer Judas;
he greets him in the garden as “Friend.”

Heading towards the highway,
the man in the gray car troubles my thoughts.
Why was he so angry at nothing?
Where was he going?
What was he on his way to do?
How does he live with such rage?
Who in the world does he live with?
Even these casual questions call to mind
my own unjustified anger,
my own irrational moments,
my own lashing out.

Jesus met thoughtless angry people again and again
and showed that all roads lead to grace,
if you want to go there.
Every encounter a vehicle for kindness.
Like Jesus, most of our lives
are bookended by kindness too.
Someone gave birth to us, thank God,
and someone will bury us in the end.
Kindness coming and going.
We choose what’s in the middle.
Entering the highway,
I roll down the window,
I scoop the rushing wind with my hand
and whisper a prayer
through the open window
for the man in the gray car.

Prayer of the Unemployed

In the wrench of job loss, we fall at your feet, Lord Jesus.
Occupation and income all suddenly thrown aside,
our life’s apple cart overturned.
Uncertainty is thrust upon us,
not-knowing haunting our waking hours,
anxiety our companion all night long.

Jesus stand among us.
Look in our eyes with love,
assuring us that we are loved just as we are,
even as people without jobs.
Grasp us by the shoulders,
giving us confidence for the job search ahead.
Shake us awake
when we feel like lying down and sleeping forever.
Whisper words of identity in our ears
when we wonder who we are.
God of the unknown journey and the twisting path,
be our guide in this time of grief and change.
Enlighten us to the work you would have us do.
Keep our eyes focused on the employment that never ends,
the work we do for your kingdom, 
trusting that you will provide for our needs.

Canada Day Prayer

Thank you, God, for this piece of the world called Canada, 
a slice of land broad and wide,
blessed with rivers and great lakes,
wide skies and great forests,
high mountains and gracious plains,
beautiful from sea to sea to sea.

Thank you for letting us live in this land,
even though we do not own it;
this land is your land,
which we use in trust for future generations.
Thank you for its rich history,
which includes the Inuit and Aboriginal and Metis peoples.
We pray for justice and wisdom as we work on difficult
and abusive relationships with First Peoples.

Thank you for our system of government,
for the right to speak freely, and to elect our leaders.
Thank you for the freedom of religion and conscience that we enjoy. 
Thank you for universal health care,
and a social safety net, even though not all are caught by it,
and not all dwell in safety.

We want a country that is the best it can be,
a home for all, welcoming refugees and newcomers,
sharing this wealthy country with the world.
Bless our leaders, our Prime Minister and all members of parliament;
guide their steps, and empower us to use our voice to help them
as they make difficult and far-reaching decisions.
We thank you today for our home and native land--
thank you for giving us a home here, where we live in peace and security.
God keep our land, Canada, keep it strong and free,
keep it safe and beautiful for future generations.
Amen.

Kindred Spirits

Thank you God for the quick connection,
for the interest in another’s eyes
and sympathy that is not forced.
Thank you for simultaneous laughter
and a quiet moment,
for interests that connect,
and the spontaneous invitation, “We should…”
and the quick reply of “Let’s”.
Thank you for the light giddiness that comes
from encountering a kindred spirit.
In a world where friends seem few and far between,
God of friends,
thank you for finding me new friends
on the long journey.

Psalm for Silence

I crave silence like water.
In this noisy non-stop fast-paced high-powered
injection-fuelled people-filled emotion-packed
day, I say,
“I crave silence like water.”
Drop, drop, drop
into my soul, soul, soul.
I will listen for the drip and the echo.
I will look, look, look
for the dropper of silence
and wait, wait, wait to be filled.

Silence expands noiselessly.
It blossoms unexpectedly,
beautifully, completely,
and it doesn’t leave when you open your eyes.
Silence is companionable,
it likes your company,
and wants you to stick around.
Silence is the long-term friend of pause,
and is acquainted with catch-your-breath.
Close cousins with sleep.
Wait’s uncle.
Silence swoops over the world,
its wings brush our hair.

Silence outdistances all takers.
In the vast reaches of space,
supernovas explode in silence.
Silence seeps into the world
through the night sky.
I open my mouth
as round as the moon
and breathe in silence.

Sanctuary Prayer

I weave a circle of prayer around this sanctuary

Protect, dear God, this space from sin.

Let evil thoughts be dropped in the parking lot

along with petty quarrels and all bitterness.

Let selfishness be relinquished on the steps

and pride be renounced at the threshold.

Let quarrelling be left at the door

and all hard feelings be hung up in the cloakroom.

Help us enter this hour of worship simply,

as children, eager to meet you here.

 

I weave a circle of prayer around this sanctuary.

Equip, dear God, this space for worship.

Let love be present in every handshake

and every meeting of eyes.

Let spirits be open to your presence,

and let our hearts be eager to feel your embrace.

Let music touch our deepest chords

and let our prayers be the melody we hum as we go.

Let us leave this hour of worship carrying no baggage,

only the blessings of your sacred congregation.

Heavyhearted Prayer

My heart is heavy.

Heavy like a bulky suitcase carried too long,

Heavy like the pressure at the bottom of the pool’s deep end,

Heavy like feet at the end of a long day’s walk,

Heavy like carrying bad news to a friend,

 

Lifter of the heavyhearted, hear my prayer.

Help me to remember the strength that first lifted

    and bore the weight easily.

Help me to remember the sweet surrender of diving

    and the adventure of going deep.

Help me to remember the lightness of step

    at the beginning of a purposeful journey.

Help me to remember how even bad news

    is endured together in love’s embrace.

You are the God of the heavyhearted and the lighthearted,

keep me near your heart this day.  Amen.