God of Today and Every Day, we are fragile folk and we confess that we have allowed fear to control our lives. Our hearts are tattered and our minds race as we wait for the next blow: “What if…… happens?” we ask ourselves. Calm our trembling notions, we pray, as we face the unknown. Even in the throes of governmental change, even in midst of a pandemic, even when lawlessness has become commonplace, even when we live in the shadows of a broken world, you are with us. Today and every day, Good Lord, speak your peace to our restless souls. We long to remain firm in the faith that we have openly confessed. And what we have confessed may we practice boldly.

Thank you for planting desire in our hearts—a desire to know you, a desire to be better people. You show us the faces of so many living on the edge, the homeless and mentally ill, those who are going through the motions of living, existing amid oppression and denied a chance to realize their dreams and talents. Our efforts to rectify seem insignificant in the frame of such great need; but as they have crossed our path, we know they are precious in your sight, and you intend our hands to hold out your grace and hope to each.

As we pray for all those souls who search for an open door, we also offer the prayers of our inmost hearts, our thanksgivings, our burdens and our desires known only to you . . . . . . . . . .  And as your mercy envelopes all, continue to guard these who also offer their joys and their deepest desires to your care:

• Gratitude: Beautiful fall foliage and more time at home to admire beauty
• Thanksgiving for all who are praying for the victims of Covid-19
• Thankful that wife is released from the hospital to recover at home
• Member celebrates the completion of her radiation treatments
• That tensions throughout our nation will turn toward peace
• Prayers for member having kidney surgery today
• Three members suffering from depression, that healing may come
• Prayers for friend having hysterectomy today, that all might go well
• Please pray for longtime friend in ICU, that she may overcome the virus
• Prayers for faithful Christian physician recovering from heart surgery
• Dear friend in Martin, Tennessee, hospitalized with Covid-19 complications
• Healing for teenage daughter, peace for her loving parents
• Staff and residents at local facility where virus numbers have spiked
• A broken family, that parents may be led to healing relationship
• Continued prayer for autistic grandson, for healing of recent symptoms
• Prayers for friend with metastatic cancer, comfort for family

Lead us, Gracious God, to live in the way of Jesus, who was engaged with the world, but who was not of the world; who took on the form of a slave, but has since taken his rightful place beside you in glory. By his blessed example may we live out our days, for it is in his name we pray all these things:

Make me a channel of Your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me bring Your love;
Where there is injury, Your pardon, Lord,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in You.

Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope;
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.

O Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

-Sebastian Temple

We greet you this morning, Welcoming God, trusting in your divine presence and infinite wisdom to guide us throughout this day. This is an important time for our nation – we, the people of the United States of America – for on this day we will elect leaders who will take us into the future. May those we elect be ones whose guiding principles reflect a vision of shalom – peace with justice for all your children, both here and around the world.

As your beloved children, created in your image, we long to be channels of your peace, to stand above the fray as witnesses to the transforming power of your love. But how do we sing your song in the midst of all the chaos? It seems that we have lost our way, no longer able to celebrate the amazing diversity that defines us as a nation.

Throughout today and in the days to follow, may our thoughts, words, and actions be reflections of Christ’s love for each of us. Turn our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks that we may be agents of your healing peace and uniting love.

In the midst of all that seeks to consume us this day, may we not forget the hurting, the lost, the lonely, the outcast, the grieving, the ill, the dying, the dispossessed, and the disenfranchised. For many of these, the election may not be in the forefront of their lives, and voting may not even be a possibility. Yet, it is these, first and foremost, for whom Christ came, those whom we are called to serve in his name. Remind us that, as people of faith, it is for them also that we cast our vote.

God of grace and glory, you have told us through your prophet Micah what you require of us – to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you. As “required” people, empowered by your Spirit, flood our hearts and minds with your vision for your world – the Beloved Community – and give us the courage and strength to walk into the future as channels of your peace, trusting that the Risen Christ goes before us to prepare the way. And so, as people of the Resurrection, we confidently offer the prayer he taught us:

Forever Guide, on this long journey called life, we confess that we do not always live as your people. We want to shine as the saints above, but we are often consumed in our own pursuits and do far too little to keep our promises. Day and night we have been swaddled in your love, fed by your mercy and nursed in your grace; and still we overlook the unfolding of your kingdom in our very midst. We thank you for our examples, those who left us legacies of trust. Sing to us the old songs of the saints, the melodies of your friends who continued to walk in your way of light, who lived by faith even when tribulations descended. Give us grace, we pray to join in that unending chorus of the faithful.

Redeeming God, these days you find us wringing our hands and lamenting, as so much around us seems to be swirling in disorder. Chaos appears to be gaining the upper hand across our own country, even threatening to cover your beautiful planet. We long for that land where justice rolls down as a mighty river and righteousness moves as an ever-flowing stream; but our fear of change blocks our path. Help us, Good Lord, to be bold enough to take those deliberate steps toward loving and understanding our brothers and sisters everywhere. We know you are a God who redeems, and pray you would take that anxiety and confusion, even from within ourselves, and make of them a seedbed of your new creation.

Lord of the Disheartened, gather in your arms, we pray, those who are most discouraged – those whom we know and others who are strangers, huddled in some faraway, lonely corner. Embrace those who are ill or frightened as they face a diagnosis, illness, surgery, poverty, or any sort of loss. We know you hear the cries of our hearts and that you have not left us comfortless. May your Spirit attend each one, and also these who are connected to the Church Street family:

• Grateful for prayers: Pastor with kidney ailment released from hospital
• One is thankful for successful cataract surgery on Wednesday
• Thanksgiving for church study opportunities
• Member family celebrates the birth of healthy baby boy yesterday
• Prayers for two members assist with sister-in-law’s funeral in Florida
• Prayer that counselor may be of help to son with major addictions
• Healing of our nation and order to be restored
• Granddaughter (18) with virus, protection for family, especially her father
• Lifting of depression for three members who suffer significantly
• Healing for best friend in North Carolina with virus; that her family is not infected
• Continued prayers for young wife battling leukemia
• For calm and courage for members awaiting a court ruling
• Healing of dear friend – young man in critical care, battling Covid-19
• Sustaining prayers for mother in hospice care, comfort for her family
• Continued prayers for healing of beloved elderly mother
• Healing of young son with virus & protection of his family
• Nephew in Missouri on ventilator with Covid-19 and his wife infected

Gracious Sustainer, we give you thanks for your open ear that receives all our prayers, for friends and family members who support us, and for those role models who have upheld us through the years.  And most of all, we are humbled by the gift of your Son Jesus, who taught us the depth of your love and the wideness of your mercy.  We lift up all these offerings this day in the name of Christ, who prayed in this way:

Praiseworthy Friend, birdsong and rosy dawn announce another fresh beginning, offered to us without cost. This newness that springs from your grace is a hallowed gift and worthy of praise. Though yesterday’s attempts to follow you may have been flawed, you hold out another string of hours for us to bear witness to your love. And within these hours, may the prayer of the ancients be our song, for they held firm to the truth, knowing that it is in giving that we will receive; it is in becoming weak that we will be strong; it is in loving others that we will be loved; and it is by surrendering ourselves that your kingdom will unfold.

O Lord of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, when we sift through our memories of years gone by, your grace and mercy are best revealed. And in peering through our rear-view mirror, we discover you at those most precipitous junctures: When death colored our family’s path, we felt you there beside us. When piercing disappointments, upheavals, and betrayals came our way, you made yourself known. When there were decisions of great import to be made, your Spirit did not desert. Lord, in the world of the present, turning points of grief, loss, trials and tragedy place themselves in our path; but because of your forever faithfulness, we move through them with a growing confidence. If you are for us, who can be against us?

Pulse of Everlasting Love, send a sense of renewal, we pray, to the hurting ones across our globe, that they might know they are not alone. We lift up the refugees stranded in lands where they are unwanted, those on the move because of famine or war; those in the grips of addiction and their families; those who are hungry and unsheltered; those who grieve what is no longer; and those who believe their cause is lost. To these, we ask that you also touch each of these concerns that are carried in the hearts of your people at Church Street:

• One offers thanksgiving for a generous unexpected gift
• Thanksgiving for the birth of a great-grandson
• Two offer thanks as they celebrate their recovery from Covid-19
• Couple celebrate the closing on their first house
• Safety and comfort for two traveling to sister-in-law’s funeral in Florida
• Guidance and strength for member raising his teenage grandchildren
• Healing prayers for a pastor with kidney disease and his anxious wife
• Pray for dear wife returning to Mayo’s today for further diagnosis
• One facing cataract surgery Wednesday – skill and wisdom for surgeon
• Healing for best friend in North Carolina with virus; that her family is not infected
• Young friend, newly married just diagnosed with leukemia, that calm and comfort might surround her & the family
• Healing of dear friend – young man in critical care, battling Covid-19
• Prayers for our nation, that bitterness and dissension might cease
• Sustaining prayers for mother in hospice care, comfort for her family
• Continued prayers for healing of beloved elderly mother
• Healing of young son with virus and protection of his family
• Granddaughter (18) with virus, protection for family, especially her father

We do praise you, Sacred One. You call us to surrender, to be at peace with our vulnerability, even though you know that surrender is the most difficult part of our faith walk. By your tender provision, however, we believe that Christ accompanies us, that the Spirit dwells within us, and that your love for us is unending. With these convictions, we boldly offer the prayer taught us by Jesus: