Prayers of the People -  the last Week of Resurrection Season

Tuesday May 26. 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 45 - My heart overflows with a goodly theme; I address my verses to the king;

Judges 19 - TRIGGER WARNING: this scripture recounts sexual assault and domestic abuse by complicity.

John 20. 19-31 - Jesus appears to the disciples and shows grace to Thomas. John states his purposes for writing.

Meditate

The words of the Lord are spirit and life, a light to the wise path. But some of these readings are difficult this week. We need to express our deep discomforts with the injustices in the histories of the people we are meant to see as our relatives in the household of faith.  Sit with your questions, write down your observations and tensions. Acknowledge your fears. 

Pray 

Bring your meditations to this time of prayer and let them guide you, or use the prayer we’ve offered here, WEB DuBois rages a lament at God, juxtaposed with today’s Psalm. 

Lord, hear the prayers of your people.

Name of God’s name! Red murder reigns. All hell is loose while high on hills of heaven, Thou sittest, dumb. Father Almighty, the earth is mad! Poems and prayers, sun glows and earth songs, great pictured dreams, hymns of high heaven… all fade, in this dread anight. This long, ghost night, while Thou art dumb

My heart overflows with a goodly theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.

Allah! Elohim! Do you hear? Death is here! Dead are the living, deep dead the dead. Dying are the earth’s unborn. Over empty seas, all the long aisles of Thy great temples, God, we stink with the entrails of our souls. 

In your majesty ride on victoriously for the cause of truth and to defend the right; let your right hand teach you dread deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.

Have mercy! Have mercy upon us misearable sinners! Stand forth, unveil Thy face, pour down the light that sees above Thy throne. Hear us! Lord, Speak! Above the thunder, beneath the silence now. 

Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity; you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.

Have all the wars of all the world, down all dim time, drawn blood from Thee? Have all the lies and thefts and hates, in this our day of drea, Thy own crucifixion, God, and more than that little cross with vinegar and thorns? Who is that low and awful cry? Who weeps? Is that You, can God sob? Can God pray? Prayest Thou Lord, that Thou needest, me? Of this I never dreamed. Courage, God, give me courage, to come and save…. You.

In the place of ancestors you, O king, shall have sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations; therefore the peoples will praise you forever and ever.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Contemplate

In silence

Through song “There’s a Lifting” Israel Houghton

From scripture: Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Rest now in the everlasting love of God. (based Psalm 127:1–2)

Seek God’s face, receive God’s grace as Jesus extends grace to Thomas

Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus appaeared. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” from John 20

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

Lord, hear the prayers of your people. Amen

Artwork: Njideka Akunyili Crosby // The Spirit of the Lord, Sel Rachco // Nina Chanel

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