LABC Update – Monday, June 26, 2320
It was a great day at LABC yesterday!
We read Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
It may be a good thing to see ourselves as sparrows, seemingly insignificant, yet essential to the flourishing of life.
Khalilah and Maria served rainbow cake!
Dale Edmondson offered a beautiful Pastoral Prayer.
O God, this day is a gift.
It’s a day you have made. Help us rejoice in it and share its joy.
With it, is the gift of life itself, wondrous and unfathomable.
Help us embrace life—and all that it brings with it.
The life you give enables us to feel deeply and caringly with others. Your servant Paul has bid us to “rejoice with those who rejoice” and “weep with those who weep.” This past week there have been many who have needed others to rejoice with them and weep with them: Too many people lost loved ones because of gun violence. Hundreds, in unparalleled tragedy, have drowned trying to reach places of security. Many people in Ukraine and Palestine and Sudan have been scarred by a war that is fed by avarice and pride and bigotry.
When we pray for others, O God and entrust them to your keeping, we commit ourselves to work for justice and peace and mutual understanding. Your servant, Francis, centuries ago, prayed that he be made “an instrument of your peace.”
Deep down, O God, this is our prayer: Make us instruments of your peace.
We find ourselves citizens of two realms: We pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Keep us from focusing so much on our citizenship in heaven that we ignore our citizenship on earth.
In the very midst of what makes up our daily lives, you give the gift of community. As we follow the way of Jesus, we enter the community called the Church. We give thanks for it—and for our particular expression of the church. Bless those who have come among us with special needs: those in sickness, emotional challenge, confusion, loss, and grief. Bless our congregation’s mission in the world. Bless those who give it leadership.
We offer this prayer, joining with others in distant faith communities. We offer our prayer with confidence in your son’s promise that we will not be left comfortless. We pray this in his name. Amen.