Voice of the People

Delivered on July 26 by Brian Cubbage, Elder

Merciful, loving, and gracious God,

We are people of the Way, and we are on your way. But we have sought protection and salvation by taking on the trappings of Empire—its stories, its timetables, its tokens of power.

May we begin to prepare your new way. May we gather together to tell a new story: a story of liberation to captives. May our loins remain girded and our staves in hand. Help us to remain vigilant even as we tire. Help us to learn to carry with us only what we need.

We lift up in joy the birth of William Francis Carter, newborn son of Ben and Sarah Carter. May your love surround him as his life among us begins.

This day we pray for all those members and friends of our community of faith who have need.

We pray for all, in our community and in our nation, who suffer from police and state violence and the injustice of mass incarceration. We pray especially for the friends and family of Sandra Bland of Naperville, Illinois, who died in official custody in Hempstead, Texas on July 13.

We pray for all of those who endure the hatred and oppression of others on account of their race; their ethnicity; their nationality; their gender expression; their sexual orientation; their religion. We pray especially for transgender and gender nonconforming persons, who face heightened risks of violence. We lift up especially in prayer the family and friends of India Clarke, murdered this week, and the tenth transgender woman to be murdered in the United States this year.

We pray finally for all those whose joys and woes and needs are known only to you, God, that you may shelter those deep within your heart.

It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

Prayer of the People

Delivered by Brian Cubbage on Sunday, August 17, 2014.

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Merciful, loving, and gracious God,

We come before you today to confess that we seek to be the whole body of Christ in our own right. We seek to be self-sufficient islands, complete unto ourselves. But you remind us that we are only who we are within community. We are, therefore I am. Help us to remember that we are members of one body, borne upon one another's joys and griefs, struggles and victories; hurt by injustice done to any; liberated only by justice done for all. Help us to learn which member of the body we are. Help us to do and be well at being the part we are called to be, whether we be a hand to help; a mouth to speak; a leg to move; an ear to hear; a heart to feel; an eye to see.

This day we pray for all those members and friends of our community of faith who have need: Beth Eilers, James Knox, Raymond Philpot, Vicki Land's father, John Cutsinger, Craig Schroeder, Margie Moody, Kristina Peters, Max Chancellor, Jack Pittenger, Clara Cruikshank, Roger Geeslin, Richard Nash, Millie Rott, Harold Lindsey, Norman Harrison, and Hazel Wintzer

We pray for our community of faith as we reason together about our outreach into our neighborhood and our city.

We pray for the families of Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri; Ezell Brown of Los Angeles, California; Eric Garner of New York City; and for the families of all others who have died at the hands of police in our country.

We pray for the entire community of Ferguson and St. Louis, for those who protest for justice and for those sworn to uphold it, that honesty and a desire for truth guide all their, and our, words and actions.

We lift up in joy today all those, both within our community and without, who prepare to start a new school year. May your blessings be upon the learning and discovery they and we experience this year.

We pray for all those who struggle today with unemployment; with burdensome debt; with foreclosure; and with poverty and homelessness. We pray that, in a land of plenty, all may find a place at the table; and that we may know the favor of your jubilee.

We pray for all of those who endure the hatred and oppression of others on account of their race; their ethnicity; their nationality; their gender expression; their sexual orientation; their religion.

We pray finally for all those whose joys and woes and needs are known only to you, God, that you may shelter those deep within your heart.

It is in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Sermon Podcast: Teach Us to Pray

"That is not to say, however, that God doesn’t change the world through our prayers—God can feed the hungry, bring peace and justice to the strife-torn and the oppressed, heal the sick. God can even raise the dead. God’s proven all of that time and time again.

"But perhaps it’s easier to believe that God will magically make food for the hungry, bring peace and justice to the downtrodden, and heal the sick than to expect myself to become the kind of person that God could use to feed the hungry, bring peace and justice to the downtrodden, and heal the sick.

"God could change the world without us, I suppose, but God wants to do it through us."

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