Prayers of Adoration & Confession

Watch or 10:22

God whose breadth and length and depth knows no bounds,
You strengthen us and invite us to join with the saints,
You are grounded in love and
work within us in more ways than we can imagine.

Jesus, prophet who is come into the world,
You welcome us as we come to you.
You are not deterred by the enormity of the scene you face,
You feed us and make us whole.

Spirit of Life,
You empower us to rise,
To rise and above the limitations and barriers we see,
To grow, and become something new.

We adore you.

Forgive us when we put limits on you,
When we do not love,
When we are not open to your possibilities.

Forgive us when we do not offer welcome,
When we turn away because what we see is too enormous
for us to face and we do not know what we can offer.

Forgive us when we are held back by our what we perceive as limitations
When we see only barriers,
When we do not see a way to make things new.

Amen.

Word of Grace
Sisters and brothers in Christ
God sees a new future in us all.
She invites us to come,
To sit down and be fed.

And so we can say with confidence that
Our sin is forgiven.
Thanks be to God.

Kirsty Bennett, offered for worship 25/07/2021, Pentecost 9B

Prayers of the people

Watch or 44:20

Today’s prayers take up some of the themes of the readings and the sermon’s theme of story.

The God of Israel and of Jesus is a story-making God. Let’s pray to God seeking to hear the story afresh and faithfully to live our role in it.

Let us pray

In his treatment of Bathsheba and Uriah, David twisted and rejected God’s story of justice and compassion.

So story-making God, we pray for all who are the victims of those who distort, misuse and twist your story for their own gain.

We pray too for those who tell God’s story in public places and whose role in your story is to call truth to power. May they be bold, courageous, and able to see through and call out the lies and deceit of those who claim your name but live by falsehoods and lies.

In you mercy, Lord: Hear our prayer.

Jesus fed the crowds abundantly, displaying the generosity of the story he was telling.

So, we pray, story-making God, for ourselves and all who are disciples of Jesus, that the way we live our lives may be generous: generous to the poor, to the downtrodden, to the marginalized, to the victims of the abuse of power. May we also become every more generous in word and deed to the peoples of Australia’s First Nations.

We pray too for generosity with each other in this and other nations as we endure the disruptions of the pandemic. We especially pray for those whose already fragile lives are made even more so by these disruptions. Help us, we pray, to help each other; and help leaders of nations to see and respond to the needs of their people.

In your mercy, Lord: Hear our prayer

In Ephesians ware reminded of the scale of the story we are called into:
the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love.

So story-making God, we pray for the church world-wide, nationally and locally. Help us enter into this story in all its breadth length, height and depth, and finding our unity as a church in our various roles in your story of love.

Help us always remember that the story you entrust to us is a story not only for us. Keep our focus on the world that you call us to serve. Where we are too strong make us vulnerable. Where are anxious, make us trusting. When we forget your love, remind us to love.

In your mercy, Lord. Hear our prayer.

We pray too for those known to us who are lonely, ill, or fearful, for those who mourn or who know they are nearing the end of their lives. We commit them to your care and compassion.

These prayers we pray in the name of your Jesus Christ. Amen.

Geoff Thompson, offered for worship 25/07/2021, Pentecost 9B