Prayers of the People for Advent 1
At our liturgy on the 1st Sunday of Advent, Gladiola Kehler offered these prayers, which a member of our community requested by posted and shared in this way. The words are resilient, a little stubborn, and ultimately deeply hopeful, which is the perfect combination for the beginning of this season.
This day marks the 1st day of the season of Advent. A season of anticipation, waiting, longing. It marks not only the birth of Christ but his promised return to be with us forever. Immanuel. God with us. If we're honest, what most of us want is a gimmick, a quick fix to all that ails us and the word around us. We want a transactional God who promises that if we push the appropriate button we get the desired result. What we have instead is much messier. We have a relational God. A God who deigns to assume human form and leave the comforts of heaven to suffer with us.
God with us in a season where the tyranny of toxic positivity is all around us and the pressure to pretend that everything is great when everything is decidedly not great. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
God with us when we struggle how to pay bills or make ends meet, never mind wondering how we are going to afford Christmas presents. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
God with us when our bodies and our minds betray us, when we wait in anticipation of phone calls, test results, or the hope that will see us through another day. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
God with us as we sit at the bedside of a dying loved one, or leave an empty seat at the table for one who is no longer with us. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
God with us when the holidays remind us how fractured our most important relationships are. When we are no longer on speaking terms with with family members, or when children don't call or don't come home. When the tension at the dinner table is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Or you spend most of the evening hiding in the bathroom because the idea of putting on a performance is just too much. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
God with us when we cry so many tears that no one will ever see, we wonder if everyone has forgotten us, or we wonder if anyone could ever love us because we're so messed up. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
God with us as we hide bottles of liquid courage in paper bags in the closet, chase a dragon that will not be tamed, or hide our search histories and our credit card bills from loved ones. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
God with us when we wonder where we are going to spend the night and when we are so close to the edge of the abyss that we're too scared to look. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
God with us in a world ruptured by increasing violence, hatred, and political polarization. We ask that all may be held in your loving embrace. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
What are you waiting for? What do you long for? We take this time to make known to God our needs and desires, and the needs and desires of those in our community either aloud or in the silence of our hearts. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
Ours is a God whose love is limitless and whose generosity knows no bounds. Ours is a God who will do anything to get close to us, even becoming one of us. In your mercy, Hear our Prayer.
"In all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Amen.