Tree in front of my friend Jeff’s grave at Palm Mortuary, Las Vegas, NV.
Almighty God, thank You for time. Each moment is created because of You. So as the leaves fall down to the ground, let our sins fall and be swept away by the winds of Your Holy Spirit.
We’re sorry for messing up, for acting before thinking, for doing things to others that we would not want done to ourselves. You know all of our sins but You do not call us by our sin…You call us by our name with the full authority of Love. Love, that knew us before our creation. Love, that still knows us today. And Love that will be with us until the end of time.
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety or possessions – we cannot be free” (Thich Nhat Hang). But because of You, Jesus, we can let go of all these things and be led to new possibilities, new opportunities and to a new life.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, Thich Nhat Hang
Memorial of four girls killed in the 16th Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham Alabama on September 15, 1963
Author of life, reconnect us to the human story by anchoring us in Your truth. The truth, that tells that us that we are all beloved children of the most high God. We have been right, we have been wrong, but we have always belonged to You O Lord.
Thank You for Your forgiveness and mercy. Deconstruct our insatiable need to conform to a world that is not our home. Teach us how to unlearn anything that is not of God. Bring us back to where all humanity is one family in the kingdom of God.
Unite our hearts so that we will love and serve all people living in the margins of life. “We will never change the world by going to church. We will only change the world by being the church” (Unfundamentalists Christians). So let us “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) using our words only when necessary.
Tags: bible, Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Gospel, Jesus, lutheran, Mark 16:15, Prayer
LV Rescue Mission
O Great Redeemer, thank You for another day. Thank You for Your forgiveness and Your mercy. Thank You for Your grace, that surrounds us no matter what we’ve done or not done. Lord, give us the wisdom to understand that in this house there is no class, no race, no gender or anything that would separate us from our creation. There is no us or them. There are only broken sinners in need of community with God and with each other.
Stop the fighting. Stop us from sharpening our knives while we confess our sins to You and to each other. It’s time to take care of the family of God. It’s time to take care of this world. It’s time to “take care of this house, for this house is a home for us all” (From the musical “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” by Alan Jay Lerner / Leonard Bernstein).
“This step is once again our first. There is no journey gone so far (that) we cannot stop and change direction. Our hands can choose to drop the knife. Our hearts can choose to stop the hating. Every moment of our life is the beginning” (From the musical “Children of Eden” by Stephen Schwartz) not the end of God’s dream for our lives.
Tags: Alan Jay Lerner, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Church, ELCA, Jesus, Leonard Berstein, lutheran, Prayer, Stephen Schwartz
Cathedral of St. Philip. Atlanta, GA.
Great Redeemer, You liberate us from our mistakes and allow us to reclaim our identity as children of God. And even though we would like to just jump into our destiny, guide us through each step of this journey and launch us into new possibilities.
Renew our commitment to the new covenant and help us to understand Your truth, especially when we don’t want to understand. Stop us from arguing with each other on who is right and who is wrong because “we cannot evangelize if we demonize each other” (T.D. Jakes). Bring us back to being the children of God who simply love as they are loved.
At some point in time, we will all have to face ourselves and see what we did with this life. Lord, speak into the silence, speak into the brokenness and speak into every uncomfortable moment so that our “life would speak more loudly than our lips”(William Ellery Channing). Let this world see more of You in each and everyone of us.
Tags: Children of God, Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, Spiritual, T.D. Jakes, William Ellery Channing
Stained glass window at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Henderson, NV
Lord Jesus, You are the One who bore the cross for all of our sins so that we could live. Create a space within, where change can happen in our hearts and minds because we’re guilty of doing “anything…to avoid facing (our) own souls.” (C.G. Jung) Give us the courage to look at our own hearts and see what You see and not what we want to see.
We are not the activators of our own healing or growth. You are. So strengthen us to take up our cross and walk with You. Help us to tell a different story of compassion. A story where we feed the hungry, aid the sick, and give to the poor because “whatever (we) did for one of the least of these (we) did to (You).” (Matthew 25:40)
Lord God, don’t let anything stop us from embracing the truth that we can make a difference in this world. Remind us that it’s not about tomorrow or yesterday. It’s about today. Right now, right here, with the God who will never leave our side. In the name of the all knowing and ever loving God we pray. Amen.
Tags: bible, Carl G. Jung, Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, God, Jesus, lutheran, Matthew 25:40, Prayer
Civil Rights Museum, Atlanta, GA
Lord God, we come just as we are with the shared brokenness of a fallen world. We’ve become numb and closed our eyes to the needs of others. Connect with us now and wash away our mistakes.
When others hurt us, help us to understand their situation instead of trying to hurt them back. Give us the wisdom to see that we are not boxed into the limitations that we’ve created for ourselves. Show us the bigger picture, that “sin is indeed always in us, and Godly people feel it; but it is covered” (Martin Luther) in the healing hands of Jesus Christ who takes away the sins of the world.
Lord, with all of our insecurities, You take the bad with the good with or without our apologies. Your love is unconditional. Your love knows no boundaries. Your love is always with us. So, open up our hearts and let the healing truly begin.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Martin Luther
The Angel of the Lord #10000 by Howard Finster
Lord God, You “stand with us and give us strength” (2 Timothy 4:17). Center us now in the truth that will change the landscape of our limited perspective. Yes, we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves, but we are also captive to the living Word of God that will not let us go. It holds on to us even when we stray. Some of our sins we know…but some are known only to You.
Help us to know that we are welcome at Your table with all of our joy, sorrow, anger, and regret. Just absorb all of the storms that we have to offer, for we have many. For today, “everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed” (Martin Luther).
We’re sorry when we doubt You and make mistakes. Jolt us out of our complacency and awaken us to the needs of others. Reshape our hearts so that we can go out and touch lives and change the world. In the name of the all knowing and ever loving God we pray. Amen.
Tags: 2 Timothy 4:17, Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Howard Finster, Jesus, lutheran, Martin Luther, Prayer, The Angel of the Lord #10000
Park in Atlanta, Georgia
Great Protector, we give thanks and dedicate this time to You. Forgive us, if we asked You more than we thanked You. Help us to see that we are not the only ones in need of Your mercy. Let Your music fill the silence of our hearts so that we can sing Your praise.
We’re sorry for words we said or didn’t say. We’re sorry for things we did or didn’t do. We come here to be cleansed from our mistakes, and to be made new. Speak to us, lead us and guide us because we cannot be heroes of our own making. We’re just people who share the same brokenness and need the same healing. Let us just be still and know exactly who You are.
Lord, don’t let us be divided over the ways of the world but allow us to be united in the kingdom of God. Wrap us in the armor of truth, justice and love so that we can truly see those around us as ourselves and say to each other that “we’re sorry you’re heartbroken and we’re sorry that we’re not perfect, but we have a perfect love in Jesus Christ and we would love to share that with you right now and right here…one sinner to another.” In the name of the creating and sustaining God whose love knows no end.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, Compassion, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, redemption, Sinner
Original Oil Pointing commissioned by New Song Church
Let us be aligned with You, O God. Allow us to embrace the changes that resonate with God’s Holy plan. Calm the storms around us and within us by letting “love diminish our fears” (Rev. Zelda Kennedy). And even when we’re caught in the winds of the world, please don’t let us ever stop witnessing the gospel of Jesus Christ. For “sin (will) happen whenever we refuse to keep growing” (Richard Rohr). So nourish our growing relationship with You, O Lord, and remind us that “hope will never be silent” (Harvey Milk).
“Love cannot be taught. Love comes from God alone, and must be incarnated and experienced” (Rev. Jeff Hood). “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter” (MLK). The love of God will not be silent and neither will we. We will not look away from those whom we can help. We can and will be the transformed compassionate children of Almighty God, so that all will know that they are loved. So that all will know that they are healed and forgiven. So that all will know that they truly belong.
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, God, Jesus, love, lutheran, Martin Luther King Jr, Prayer, Rev. Jeff Hood, Rev. Zelda Kennedy, Richard Rohr
Lord, guide us to respond to the movement of Your Spirit and not resist it. “What we are not, make us. What we know not, teach us. What we have not, give us… (Teach us) “about hope instead of weariness; love instead of fear and (reveal) the power of amazing grace instead of evil and hate – hold nothing back” (Rev. Zelda Kennedy).
Give us the courage to examine ourselves and “allow us to see where we have been blind” (Obama), blind to the pain of those around us, and blind to our shared humanity. Let us be the sanctuary from a harsh world. Let our actions tell those we meet, that their lives matter. Let grace surround us. Let light restore us and let love unite us as the body of Christ.
“Don’t let us slip back into comfortable silence and avoid the uncomfortable truth that plagues our society” (Obama). “Our calling, is not just within the walls of this congregation, but the life and community in which it resides” (Rev. Clementa Pinckney). Break the cycle of repeating the same mistakes of the past and open our hearts to the revelation of God’s Word that “the church is freedom, freedom to worship, freedom to be fully what God intends us to be and have equality in the sight of God” (Rev. Clementa Pinckney).
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, God, Jesus, lutheran, Mother Emmanuel AME CHURCH, President Barack Obama, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Rev. Zelda Kennedy, South Carolina Shooting
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