Prayer as We Gather: On this All Saints Day, Lord, the joyful spirits of past worshipers press in upon us as we slip into the pew. They, like we here today, bore with them into worship the weight of care, the pain of loss, the hope for redemption, clinging to a stubborn trust in your power to heal and forgive. They came seeking the same set of searching Galilean eyes, the same gentle shepherd’s caress, the same mirth-filled, compassionate voice of high priest Jesus we long to discover. Wash our weary conscience clean of death-dealing chaos all about us, so we might serve you, our living God, by obeying your command to welcome the immigrant stranger at our borders. Amen.*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Hebrews 9)
Call to Worship:
All my life long I’ll praise God,
Singing songs to my God as long as I live.
Don’t put your life in the hands of experts,
Who know nothing of salvation life.
Mere humans don’t have what it takes;
When they die, their projects die with them.
Instead, put your hope in God and know real blessing!
God defends the wronged, feeds the hungry.
God frees prisoners and lifts up the fallen.
God protects strangers, takes the side of orphans and widows,
But makes short work of the wicked.
God’s in charge – always.* (Psalm 146, The Message)
Morning Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for calling us to follow Jesus in such a time as this, when our choices between privileged entitlement and the needs of the dispossessed are so clear. May we see the voting booth as holy ground, sacred to the memory of true patriots “who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!” Help us safeguard the hallowed, self-evident truth that all your children are created equal in your sight, for we pray in the name of One who taught us to love you with all our heart, dying on a cross for daring to resist the unholy powers of the nation-state, saying …*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Mark 12 and the poetry of Katherine Lee Bates)
Prayer of Confession: Forgive us, Lord, for reducing scripture to fairy-tale status, as when we tame the Ruth-Naomi narrative into a primer on “how to catch a husband.” May we free it from its cage, liberating God, releasing the fury of this subversive Hebrew parable intended to undermine the authority of male priests trying to “Purify” Israel by ostracizing foreign women. Have mercy on our flag-draped resistance to scripture’s command that we welcome the immigrant at our gates. Save us from groveling at the altar of nationalism, we pray. Amen.*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Ruth 1)
Assurance of Pardon: I have good news: Flowing like a mighty river just beneath the surface of Ruth’s pledge of loyalty to Naomi is the life-giving theme of returning, the freedom God allows us to turn and reclaim the best of those things that shaped our past. We do not have to remain silently bound by crippling chains that would squelch our truer selves and prevent our walking in faith. We are free to become the persons God intended us to be from the moment we were conceived. Thanks be to God that we need not fear the demons from our past, but may forever hold fast to the best that has gone before!*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Ruth 1)