Oct 30th Prophecy Truth & Healing: Praying for Truth

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Oct 30th Prophecy Truth & Healing

Praying for Truth

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Oct 30th Solomon’s Wisdom Praying for Truth 
1 Kings 3:4-9 (10-15), 16-28 Solomon prays for wisdom, 2 women and a baby
Matt 6:9-10 Our Father
Psalm 16

Call to Worship
I bless the Lord, who is always before more
God is is in my heart, instructing me
Be glad, my soul rejoices
My body also rests secure
Come let us go to God
Let us worship God

Call to Confession: God calls us to the wisdom and knowledge, come let us give ourselves to God through confession.

Prayer of Confession God we come to you praying for wisdom. We confess that we do not always know who is right or who is telling the truth. We confess that we are attracted to power or money instead of acting justly or loving mercy. But you hold fast to the boundary, even when we lose it. God is always before us, and show us the path of life and remind us how to walk humbly with you we pray. Amen

Assurance of Pardon: In God we can rest secure, and let us proclaim and rejoice in the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. 

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Teach us to pray and live into wisdom, so the paths of truth and healing may unfold before us. Help to know your ways as we go God. Amen. 

Hymns: A Mighty Fortress is Our God, When at Night I Meditate, My Shepherd Will Supply My Name, Invisible Immortal God Only Wise, In You Lord I Have Put My Trust, Within Your Shelter Loving God, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah 

Children: Talk about asking questions and how God is ok with questions. Talk about how “I don’t know” is a legitimate answer and how God is full of mystery. What If by Samantha Berger Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcake

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Oct 23rd Prophecy Truth & Healing: David and Bathsheba

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Oct 23rd Prophecy Truth & Healing

Telling the Truth David and Bathsheba

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2nd Sam 11:1-5, 26-27, 12:1-9 Nathan’s parable indicts David and he repents
Psalm 51:1-9
Matt 21:33-41 Parable about the Wicked Tenants
Psalm 53

Call to Worship

God we are here for your steadfast love
Your steadfast love endures forever
God we are here for your mercies
They are new every morning
Let us worship our loving and merciful God
Come let us worship our amazing God!

Call to Confession: God it is good to know ourselves in you—for then we know we are whole and wholly beloved, come let us confess ourselves to God. 

Confession: God, we confess that we do not always recognize ourselves. Sometimes the stories of our lives sneak up on ourselves, like David. Sometimes we condemn something and then realize that we too have sinned in that fashion. Forgive us and our judgmental ways. Teach us grace, forgiveness and the hope of the resurrection we pray. Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon: God promises restoration and resurrection, so we know that when we confess grace is assured, let us proclaim the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. 

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God is with us, even when we become unrecognizable, God finds us and greets and sits with us. Let us go into the day, the week and the world remembering that this God will be with us no matter what. Amen. 

Hymns: Amazing Grace, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Why Has God Forsaken Me, Have Mercy On US Living Lord, O For a Closer Walk with God, Jesus Thy Boundless Love to Me

Children: Talk about wearing costumes and masks so much that we might not recognize ourselves but God recognizes us, and that we cannot hide from God. Runaway Bunny, The Goblin and Empty Chair 

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Oct 23rd Prophecy Truth & Healing

Telling the Truth David and Bathsheba

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Prayer in the midst of Hurricane

God of the wind and the rain
God of the hurricane
Are you the God of natural disasters?

Surely not
And in the wake of Fiona
And the very midst of Ian
God we lift our prayers to you

God help those who are evacuating
and those who cannot.

Help those who are suffering,
in Puerto Rico, Canada, Cuba and Florida.
Those in American and those who we forget are Americans.


Those who are nearby, and those who we ignore or forget–
Remind us God, that you remember and care for all people
Black or Brown, White or American, enemy or ally–mainlander or territory dweller.
You are the God of all people, and tell us to treat the forgotten as our sibling.

Help us humans as we grapple with this thing we call climate–
This beautiful, unwieldy, uncontrollable phenom
that keeps us humble
(when we pay attention to it)

Help us to weather the storms
To rethink how we build and use resources and be community with one another
Be with those who need the help the most we pray,


Not just in the exciting moments of aftermath,
But throughout the long slog of care that is needed we pray.
Amen.

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Autumn

God,
Isn’t it funny
How every Autumn–
I get so exhausted
With all of the Injustice in the World

I hit a wall of Stuckness
And it compounds Everything!

And then I remember
that I have SAD
and so some of my weariness
is as natural as the seasons–

And I’m grateful to remember
That I’ll have the energy
to fight for justice and righteousness
again

Amazing what Sabbath
and Seasons
Can do for a woman
Isn’t it God?

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End of Summer Prayer

(My kids start school a little bit later than the rest of the area, this compounded by the lack of summer camps and childcare makes things tough–that being said, we are blessed by the flexibility of my job. I feel the need to explain my particular context, as I write one more summer prayer)

God I want these kids in school
Instead they are everywhere
Asking for electronics
Eating all my food Squabbling

Is this what discipleship felt like Jesu?
When you were trying to teach?
And Peter said Rabbi, Rabbi, but who got to go first?

And the lawyer said,
Wait a minute, wait a minute, first define neighbor?

And the rich people said,
Tell me another story about
Being rich, bc
I’m not reaaaally
Really certain if that last one applies to me

Sometimes I think,
God,
That the most accurate
Portrayal of you
Is that of a mother hen
Trying to keep her
Chicks in order,
Fed, snugggled, and safe

And the ignorant chicks,
Just peep at you
Noisily
And run in circles

God I’m longing
For my kids to go to school

Where I will miss them
And worry about them
And not be able to protect them
As I wish—
and so I listen
To the chaos
And pray

The last summer prayer
Above the clatter.

Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt/Share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

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School Prayer

Prayers
for the teachers
the students who are scared or nervous or excited
for the parents who are ready…
or not

Prayers for the lunch workers, the custodians, the secretaries, the support staff and the crossing guards and the bus drivers

Prayers for 
more supplies
more food
more support
more everything

May our schools be supported
and safe
and places of hope–

and when they are not, 
let’s work to fix it

because this is our community..
and these are our children
and this is our work

Prayers for our community.

Amen. 

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Magnifcat

We could Magnifcat
Some more 
Fill the hungry 
with good things
Send those
Rich 
A
Way
Empty
Bring
the 
Mighty
Down
Scatter
the Proud
in 
Thought
and Heart

We will watch
the mercy

I am 
ready
to 
watch 
a 
world 
full 
of mercy

Feel free to adapt/share/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

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Forgive us Our Debts, A Prayer

Jesus Christ, Mary and Joseph

That’s what my mother-in-law says
and that’s where I am at,
when I hear the reactions to the the forgiveness of debts.

Because, I know exactly who your God is
when I hear how you feel
about forgiveness

What kind of God, do you believe in
When a sliver of grace, is too much for you?

What does it mean, when you think every single person
Should earn their place?

What does that mean when all three of my kids have disabilities

No I do not want to hear “I didn’t mean you”

What does that mean for my friends who have debt
but no degree

The people who I know who are $100,000 in debt
born and raised in NYC, for whom this will not make a dent

for public service workers, for whom this will ease all the burdens?

And the hope that the new rules will actually, ACTUALLY help

God, you know the verse in Ezra where the sounds of joy could not be discerned from the cries of mourning when the temple is rebuilt? (I googled it it’s Ezra 3:13)

God, we need more,

Thank you God for the sliver of grace it is.

God thank you for what is being rebuilt;

God help us to tear down and rebuild even more

for teachers, students and those who need even more help today

God, forgive us our debts;

God we are are all Ezra today.

Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

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#Debt, #Ruth

Ruth is about how terrible it is to be worth less than nothing—

And how hard it is to have to beg and dig through leftovers and makeshift family to eat

And how important teaming up together among the powerless to pursue rights to land and food and shelter in spite of being indebted women without children who were culturally worth “less than nothing”

And if you think it’s about “finding Boaz” you’ve missed it.

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