The New Year

Our Father, as we look toward another year, we pour out our desires and yearnings, our feelings, hopes, intuitions, fears, and longings.  We long to have a feeling of belonging, of being at home, to participate, and feel valued at home, in the church, and in the world.  We know that such longing can only come to fullness in your love and the expression of that love in those places and those people.

There are so many people, carrying so many burdens, feeling so much pain and loneliness—minister to their needs, O Christ, and use us when and wherever our powers can be useful.  Bind up the wounds of those whose lives have been deeply hurt and give light to those whose losses darken their tomorrows, and make it a hopeful New Year.

And, O God, take from us that spirit that causes us to act as thought there were many Lords and several churches.  Forgive our divisions and heal the brokenness of your church.  Save us from so much pride in traditions that we forget the more important value of oneness in Jesus Christ.  Help us to move beyond the little societies of our own creation and become a part of the larger fellowship of your church in the world.

Let the sound of the gospel be heard in all places and the miracle of faith occur in all the earth, that the darkness may turn to the dawning and the dawning to the noonday bright, that Christ’s great kingdom may come on earth, the kingdom of love and light.  To that end help us to let go of our hanging on and have the courage to start reaching out, going into all the world that we might preach the gospel to everyone.

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