A Pastoral Prayer for Pentecost 2017

Living, loving Spirit, you are the very power of God.
You were before all things, and you swept over the waters of chaos.
You have spoken to us through the prophets,
and, in these latter days, through God’s Son.
It is you who have called us together in this place,
and it is to you we pray: Come, Spirit of Renewal.

Behold your church in all its variety and brokenness.
Too often we fail to show forth
the signs of Christ’s love, forgiveness, and generosity,
for we carry all the signs of our own weakness,
our refusal of responsibility, our betrayal.
Therefore we pray to you: Come, Spirit of life.

Behold the world the world in which we live.
How can it be the same world that you created,
and that you so loved that you sent your Son
so that we might enter faith and eternity.
Not satisfied with war, injustice, and unrighteousness,
we are now intent
on knowingly destroying the planet you have given us as our home.
Worse yet, we carry out our plans in your Name,
claiming like spoiled children that we need not worry,
for you will make it all better.
Come, Spirit of God,
show us that the here and now is part of your eternity.

Behold the lives we live,
and help us to see and understand them as lives owed to you.
Come, Spirit of mercy, and forgive us
for we know what we do, but do not yet realize its implications.

We pray all this in the Name of Jesus Christ,
for it is from him and the Creator that you are sent forth
to renew us and the world around us. Amen.

Based on a prayer found in the German Reformed liturgy