Prayers of the People -  Sunday Evening, May 24

Pause at the end of each day. Enjoy communion with the living God: Creator, Redeemer, Holy Spirit. Listen for the voice of God in the scriptures. 

Read 

Psalm 68 - Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire,let the wicked perish before God. But let the righteous be joyful; let them exult before God; let them be jubilant with joy.

1 Peter 4.12-14, 5.6-11 - Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that you may be exalted in due time. Casting all your anxiety on God, because the Lord cares for you.

Meditate 

The Resurrection Season, a time when we retell and hold close the stories of Jesus conquering death, comes to a close this week. Meditate on the stories of life mingled with the words of lament. Sit with your questions, write down your observations and acknowledge the tensions.

Pray 

Bring your meditations to this time of prayer and let them guide you, or use the prayer prompts we’ve offered here: Lord, hear the prayers of your people.

• For a heart that clings to and rejoices in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus

• For the liberation of those who are too acquainted with mental, spiritual and bodily abuse.

• For those who worship in nursing homes, or whose bodies are incarcerated but souls are free indeed.

Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

Contemplate

In silence

Through the words of Jesus, John 17.1-11

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 

I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

Seek God’s face

“My heart said - seek God’s face. Lord, your face will I seek” Psalm 27.8

Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds— his name is the Lord— be exultant before him.

Lord, hear the prayers of your people. Amen

Artwork: Norman Lewis, Untitled 1958 // Ted T. Ellis, Chit-Chatting

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