Prayers

  (based on Psalm 15)

Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle?
Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right.

Who may abide upon your holy hill?
Whoever speaks the truth from their heart.

Let us worship God in Spirit and in truth.
Let us worship God together; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God of the desert spaces,
where water is sparse and life is hard, we come to you.
Lord of the cosmic universe,
where sound is silent and light unseen,
we come to you.
God of the street and town,
where people pass without a glance,
we worship you.
God of the country,
where rippling streams sing your praise,
we worship you.
God of this place,
God of this congregation,
God of my heart,
I worship you.
We come with all that we are.
Take us, mould us, accept us,
and change our lives forever.
Amen.

Rushed and busy,
Lord, we come:
Lord, we come.

Bringing our busy-ness,
bringing our hurts,
bringing our joys.

Bringing our restlessness,
bringing our hearts,
bringing our lives.

Together we come,
Lord of our hurts and our joys,
our hearts and our lives.
In stillness and quiet we seek your heart,
we seek your calm.
We come to worship you.
We come to worship you.

We share a moment of quiet to think over the past few days.

Loving God,
We come before you today,
aware of all that we have done of which we are ashamed
and knowing that there are other things of which we still need awareness:
sin committed in the heat of the moment,
an unkind word, a spiteful glance;
sin committed in the cold light of full knowledge
and the sin over which we feel powerless;
that of greed and corruption,
power abused for our own good,
selfish acts when others needed our generosity.
We share a moment of quiet.
Loving God,
forgive us and heal us.

We give you the barren spaces of our lives:
kind words unsaid,
heartfelt gestures undone,
the spiteful glance,
the critical word.
We ask that your Spirit would grow in our deserts,
bringing your love and grace to fulfilment.
Loving God,
Forgive us and heal us.
Amen.

Read verses 1 and 2

In a moment of quiet, we reflect on the last week.
We think of the things of which we are ashamed:
when we did not speak the truth,
when our hearts and our tongues were separated,
when our hearts said 'no' but our tongues said 'yes'.
And we are sorry.

Read verse 3

We think of the things of which we are ashamed:
when others needed our love and we refused,
when we held others in contempt,
when we put others down by word or deed.
And we are sorry.

Read verse 5a

We think of the things of which we are ashamed:
When we did not challenge the greed of the world,
When we went along with corruption and dishonesty,
When we did not honour our Christian life.
And we are sorry.

Read verses 4 and 5b

May your transforming love be ever at work in our lives;
may your Spirit be ever more present in our hearts;
may your grace run through our veins;
that we might become more and more like you, every day.
Amen.

We take a moment to look around, to see the people, the building, the light, to treasure our chance to be together.

Creator God, giver of all good gifts,
we thank you for all that we have:
our homes, our families, our relationships.
Help us to always treasure these things as you treasure us.
Thank you.
Amen.

Jesus, Lord, friend, brother,
we thank you for all that we have through your love:
for our friends, our families, our loves and our relationships.
We thank you for the differences that we see
and those that are hidden,
for the acts that have built us up this past week, as individuals and as a community.
We come together today and ask you to strengthen all that is good in our lives,
and to help us to walk away from that which would destroy. 
Amen.

God of the field and river,
of the desert and oasis,
of the plain and steppe,
of the town and city:
Lord of all,
we ask your blessing.

For people who are waiting for food,
for people who are waiting for water,
for people who are waiting for shelter,
for people working to relieve want and need,
wherever they are, whoever they work with:
Lord of all,
we ask your blessing.

For children and young people,
for their families and friends,
for the old and infirm,
for the childless and the bereaved,
for those working to bring communities together:
God of all,
we ask your blessing.

For each Christian community meeting today,
for our leaders and all committed to their care,
for our missionaries, teachers and administrators,
our worship leaders and worshippers,
for all those working to forward your kingdom:
God of all,
we ask your blessing on this world.
Amen.

Lord, we delight when a woman laughs:
a laugh of love,
of delight,
of surprise.

A woman who can laugh aloud:
as Mary laughed
when Jesus was promised her though she had no husband;
as Sarah laughed
when she was promised a son though she was past child-bearing;
as Eve laughed
when she gave the apple to Adam.

A woman's laugh is a sign of joy,
a sign that all is well.
It brings comfort.
It offers hope.
It offers love.

And we pray for women who cannot laugh:
those who cannot bear children,
those who have too many children,
those who struggle to raise children on their own;
those who are the tools of men,
those whose bodies are all they have to offer.

Lord, bring comfort,
Bring laughter to their lives.

(If possible, one or two women could briefly describe their own experiences of childbirth.)

Jesus, we are not ashamed of blood
because you shed your blood for us on the cross;
because the wine of the Eucharist recalls your blood,
your pain, your suffering.

Lord, we are not ashamed of water
because water is the source of the life you give us;
because the water of Baptism recalls
the new life we find in you.

Lord, we are not ashamed of nakedness
because our bodies are your gift to us
and we are made in your image;
because the bread of the Eucharist recalls your body
broken for us.

But we are ashamed of tears, Lord:
tears of apprehension,
tears of joy,
tears of celebration when new life is gained,
tears of grief when birthing brings tragedy.

May God, who laboured in love to create all life,
continue creating within us
new hope, new joy, new vision;
and may we, in Christ,
bring new life to our world.
Amen.

Place a suitable musical box in the centre of the worship area. Explain that you are going to open and close the box at regular intervals. While the music is playing, ask the children to remember times when they were surprised by God, and during the quiet intervals invite them to thank God for the presence of his Holy Spirit, helping and guiding them through hard times. At a suitable point, end with this short prayer:

Loving, living God, we thank you for being there for us. Help us to recognise your presence.
Amen.

For children

God loves you for younger children

Look again at the pictures you drew of each other (in God’s here ), and ask the children to identify each one. Invite the children to hold hands in a circle, put the pictures in the centre, and walk around, singing the following for each child (to the tune ‘Skip to my Lou’)

(name — repeated if needed) God loves you,
You are special, and we pray for you,
God will always be with you,
God knows all of us.

If you haven’t drawn the pictures, you can still do this. Ask each child to name one other person in the group, and then use the prayer.

Again, using the identified pictures, display them and invite each child to stand facing his or her picture. Go along the line, calling each child by name. As each child turns, the group says:

‘(Name) , God will be with you this week wherever you are. Look for God.’

When all the children have turned around, pray for the group as a whole, asking that others will see God in the things the children do.

(You can also do this without the pictures!)

A responsive prayer

Loving God, help us to recognise you when you speak to us,
help us not to be too busy for you.
Loving God, help us to understand what you want us to do,
help us not to be too busy for you.
Loving God, help us to live our lives in such a way that others will know how much we honour and respect you,
help us not to be too busy for you.
Amen.

For young people

Roll of honour

Abraham chose to honour God through his hospitality, but we can honour God in other ways. Give the young people some time to write up words and phrases on the graffiti wall (see Set the scene ) to honour God, in praise or thanks.

Possible impossible

Becoming pregnant seemed laughable to Sarah, yet it was clearly not impossible for God, who doesn’t have our limitations — anything is possible for God. Hand out paper and pens, and give the group time to write a prayer asking for God’s help in a situation or scenario, even if it seems impossible!

Alphabety God

Abraham made sure he gave God the honour he deserved, and we need to remember to do the same in our prayers. Sit the group in a circle, and have each person in turn come up with an ending to the sentence ‘Thank you, God, for being…’. The first person chooses an ending beginning with ‘a’, the second with ‘b’ and so on until you’ve got to ‘z’.

Restful God

Play some restful music and have a time of silence. Encourage the young people to sit or lie down, away from the distractions of others, and to shut their eyes. Invite the young people to use the time to ask God to refresh them — to rest and to reflect on the things they’ve done during the week and the ways in which they’ve met God. Finish with a short prayer.

Loving God, help us to recognise you when you speak to us,
help us not to be too busy for you.
Loving God, help us to understand what you want us to do,
help us not to be too busy for you.
Loving God, help us to live our lives in such a way that others will know how much we honour and respect you,
help us not to be too busy for you.
Amen.

Loving, living God, you sometimes surprise us just when we least expect it.
Lord, help us not to laugh, but to have faith.

You sometimes ask us to do things that amaze us.
Lord, help us not to laugh, but to have faith.

We read in the Bible that anything is possible with God.
Lord, help us not to laugh, but to have faith.

We know that you will never ask us to do anything that is beyond us.
Lord, help us not to laugh, but to have faith.