A Daily Prayer During this COVID-19 Crisis

May 9, 2021
 A daily prayer during this COVID-19 crisis
 During these difficult days, members of the clergy class of 2021 are sharing a daily prayer based on the Revised Common Lectionary for the week.
 You are welcome to use these in worship or in your own devotions.
 Today’s prayer
 God of water and spirit,
 God of astonishment and unforeseen adventures,
 God of pandemics and vaccines,
 God who mourns with us in death’s shadow,
 And God who rejoices beside us in the sun,
 
 We praise you for your unfailing presence in our lives in good times and in bad.
 We gather today to worship you with all that we have and all that we are.
 
 This morning, many of us enter our sanctuary for the first time in a long time.
 Others continue to worship from their homes and on-the-go.
 
 Some of arrive like Peter, full of passion and things to say.
 Others are more quiet. We watch from the sidelines of our pews and couch cushions,
 wondering, waiting, perhaps even hoping that you might have a word to speak just to us today.
 
 We thank you for being a God who sees each and every one of us:
 Insiders and outsiders,
 Popular and unpopular,
 Remembered and forgotten.
 
 Just as your Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentile believers in the book of Acts,
 we humbly ask that your Spirit would fall upon us today.
 Remind us that we are loved and accepted as your children.
 Remind us that those who we see as “outsiders” are also loved and accepted as your children.
 Inspire us to dream your dreams, speak your words, and imagine your vision for our world.
 Help us, God, by your grace, to love you, and to love one another as you have loved us.
 
 In the name of Jesus Christ we pray.
 Amen.
 Michelle Ashley, candidate for commissioning/membership as a provisional elder
 Written in honor of my church building’s reopening today (May 9), inspired by Acts 10:44-48