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Prayer of the People, 9 June 2019

June 10, 2019 0 Comments

Pentecost Sunday

Heavenly Father,

We enter into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — with deep gratitude for the love you have shown to all Creation in the life and death of Jesus Christ. It is by His blood that we have been ushered into your presence. It is by your Spirit that we have been brought into a dynamic and living relationship with you.

Thank you.

Thank you for causing us to stand in your grace.
Thank you for granting us forgiveness of sin without merit.
Thank you for cleansing us of that which generates so much shame.
Thank you for destroying the works of the evil one.
Thank you for creating new life in us.
Thank you for bringing us into a family of believers.
Thank you for putting a new song in our hearts.
Thank you for sustaining us in the night.
Thank you for revealing your purposes to us.
Thank you for giving us daily bread.
Thank you for carrying us when we feel so weak.

Thank you.

You have caused your face to shine on us. Though we may fear that our neighbours will  despise us, may your glory be through us life for the nations and to our neighbours. May your salvation be the joy of their hearts and the firmness of their steps. May your love bring health to their bones. May your Word proclaimed humbly from our mouths be truth that sets them free.

Oh Father, we grieve with First Nations communities in Canada over the state of women and children. Bring comfort and bring justice. It’s not just our cities and highways that need your new humanity — its our hearts and minds. We repent of seeing with contempt. We repent of not seeing. We repent of seeing and not caring. We repent of thinking “not my problem.” We repent of our hardness of heart. Please send your Spirit like fire to illuminate our hearts so we do not walk about in darkness and stupid complicity.

We need wisdom from heaven to align our disordered affections with you. The violence of the past has sows seeds of pain that grow today. We need healing in the land O Lord. With shameless audacity we come knocking on the doors of heaven — Fill us with your Spirit.

We set our lives before you and so we pray as Jesus teaches us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer) 

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

Prayer

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Lament for Refuge

June 1, 2019 0 Comments

You have searched me, LORD and you know me.

My life of aspiration
Was bought in sweat and deception
For my ancestors came from the wrong nation
And were treated with contempt and degradation.

You created my inmost being and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

In every space I have tried not to die
’till a friend said, “Go West young man,
They love the truth.” So I have arrived to find
The truth is not enough — they would rather hear a lie.

Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Peace eludes me.
I don’t have a way.
Truth enslaves me.
I don’t want to hide.

See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

I love life.

Poetry, Relationships

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No Nostalgia for Shells

May 28, 2019 0 Comments

The soft blue swatch
that caught my eye
would not yield–
either
a tale of security
or the song of your
wild fortunes.
My questions could not penetrate
the folds of your recent past,
yet gratitude swept over me like light on ancient paths,
illuminating our common plot
and the Spirit’s gracious gifts —
the free
must have room to grow
and time for wings
to stretch.

Change, Poetry, Relationships

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Blunt Force Trauma

May 27, 2019 0 Comments

Just a stick in the mud.

You struck me with
those careless words
a little phrase 
it turned my head.

I filed it till 
it became a bowl
fit for blood, sweat 
and bitter tears.

With those shavings
I stoked a fire whose 
flames smelled of 
cold cursed ambition.

I stoked it 
till it nearly
killed me.
I stoked it 
’till true wisdom
turned me 
against the grain
of your casual 
disregard.

Change, Poetry, Relationships

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Prayer of the People, 26 May 2019

May 27, 2019 1 Comment

Heavenly Father,

We set our hearts and our minds on You. You are seated in Your throne room, yet your majesty and glory fills the whole earth. We come without pretensions for our own righteousness. Instead we come with gratitude for the righteousness of Jesus in whom our lives have been hidden.  You are our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption. Thank you for this grace!

We sit with you and are fed.
We walk with you and have company.
We stand with you and have victory.

Thank you for this grace. In our weakness you are strong. You have forgiven our sins and have fortified us through many temptations. You have been our help and truly it is by your help that we have come this far.

These weeks we are celebrating with graduates of UBC.  We celebrate what is completed, and we look forward to a future with you. As these dear ones take next steps please remind them to set their hearts on things above even while they navigate all of the practical pieces of finding work, of moving, and of navigating change.  Remind us of Your glory in the midst of change and uncertainty. You are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

We seek to live as Jesus did, so we are not unaffected or unmoved by the ways powers and principalities animate the institutions of our world. O how the nations rage! But your Kingdom will prevail even as North Korea tests their missiles, and as tensions rise in Europe’s elections, and as Iran stretches its arms, and India abounds with voices of hate and suspicion that find a place in online streams to turn people against their neighbours.

Compel us again through the tremendous and surprising grace of the Gospel to love our neighbours and our enemies and to plead with you for the salvation of all who would turn to Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is by His grace that turn our hearts and minds to you and that we pray —

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

Prayer, Society

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