Prayer of thanksgivings and confession; The truth of the gospel and God's character even in the midst of our ebbs and flows.

I am using an old Prayer that I wrote a few years back this week. maybe it is a sign of tiredness, I haven't been sleeping well. I hope it is not a sign of laziness. It still is a prayer that rings true and picks up life as it is with its calm and its raging storm, it picks up the fact that sometimes we just are not in a place to give God praise but just as Israel remembers what God has done for them in the past they find their faith and hope renewed it is the same for us... as we remember Christ.

 It has a central part that reflects the rhythm and flow of the great prayer of thanksgiving that goes before communion, telling the gospel narrative. That again seems to be part of why I originally penned it that way... it is in remembering a familiar prayer that the gospel story is retold and steps again into my story. So through tired eyes it does bring home again the gospel truth and the tireless love of God shown to us in Christ.

The prayer sort of flows between two voices one the voice of theology and the other the voice of 21st century kiwi English.

Lord God

God of the light and the dark

Night and the day 

God of the peaceful calm and the raging storm

God in plentiful times and God when it’s all lean and gone

We praise you for your goodness and your greatness.

Our circumstances dictate our emotions

Sometimes God Hallelujah is the word furthest from our lips

Praise you and thank you, are the furthest from our minds

Yet when we stop and remember, we know your great love

We know that you have showered us with your blessings and grace

The world in all its beauty and complexity

You made

Each of us with our uniqueness

you put together in our mother’s womb

We were lost and dead in our sins

Yet to you we were treasured and missing

So you sent us a shepherd to seek us out

Your son Jesus full of mercy and grace

Not to chastise and to brow beat

But to call back and make whole

Not far away and stand off-ish

But a friend of sinners and outcasts

Not an idol of wood or metal

But a real human being: blood bone and skin

Not to be served

but to serve

Not to demand our lives

But to give his life for us

Not just another blast from the past rotting in a tomb

But risen and alive today

And You invited us to journey with Jesus

To know you through him as you abide in us

You even entrusted us with the Good News of his death and resurrection

 You fill us with your Holy Spirit so we could do it

You called us to be your family together

You invite us to come live at your place when our wandering is over 

We are truly blessed

Forgive us our sins lord

Our pride in the face of your humility

Our unlove in the light of your love

Our unforgiving when you have forgiven us

Our reluctant thanks in light of all you’ve done

Our wanting more in the midst of your bounteous provision

Our neglect of the poor in light of your love for the least

People hear the wonderful good news

As we confess our sins God is faithful and just and forgives us our sins and cleanses us of all wrongdoing

God fill us a fresh with you spirit

Pour it on us like the heavy showers pounding on the roof

Convict us of our need for you, lead us into all truth

Enable us to love and to bless with a Christlike love

For your sons sake

Amen