Pastoral Prayer, Sunday, November 20, 2011

Gracious God, your power was revealed when you raised Christ from the dead and seated him at your right hand to divide the nations as judge.  Guide us through Christ in the power of the Spirit, so that we may inherit your promise and be filled with the courage to embody that promise to those who are searching.

Holy Father, Father of Christ who identifies with the least of these, help us to be filled with a desire to commune with the least as we are called to commune with Christ.  Help us not simply to feed the hungry, but eat with the hungry.  Help us not simply to visit the sick, but work for healing.  Help us not simply to be an advocate for the lost but to search for them and tell them that they have been found by God.

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and the Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule.  We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever as we continue to pray saying:

Our Father, who art in heaven

Hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us

Lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.