Prayer as We Gather: Compassionate God, grant us prophet Jeremiah’s empathetic response to his people weeping “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, yet we aren’t saved.” As summer ends and autumn beckons, we lament having forfeited honor for rancor, a whirlwind harvest of malignant mistrust sown by despicable demagogues. Re-shape us as tender physicians sent out into a hurting world with your love’s healing balm. When we waver, rekindle within us the old spiritual’s nudging: “If you can’t preach like Peter or pray like Paul, just tell the love of Jesus and say he died for all.” Amen.*(Inspired by Jeremiah 8)
Call to Worship:
The nations have defiled your holy temple, God!
We’ve become a joke to our neighbors,
Nothing but objects of ridicule to those around us.
How long will your anger burn like fire, Lord?
Don’t remember the iniquities of past generations;
Let your compassion hurry to meet us.
God of our deliverance, help us!
Cover our sins for the sake of your name!*(from Psalm 79, The Common English Bible)
Morning Prayer: Across two thousand years, Lord, we are haunted by apostle Paul’s plea: “Pray for everyone in authority so we can live a quiet, peaceful life in complete dignity, for this pleases God.” Under constant assault by the evil that names us and claims us and shames us all, we take solace in Paul’s assurance that God wants all people to come to a knowledge of the truth. May we be dispensers of that truth which evermore makes us free, for we make our appeal through the mediator who freely gave himself to set all people free and taught us to pray, saying …*(Inspired by 1 Timothy 2 and the poetry of James Taylor)
Prayer of Confession: Forgive us, Lord, for so clumsily blundering our way through Jesus’ short stories, majoring on the parables’ minor points and missing their ironic subtleties altogether, as when the dishonest household manager shrewdly cooked the books of his master’s financial ledgers in order to gain future favors from the debtors. Far from encouraging theft, Jesus was merely suggesting his followers should be at least as clever in our discipleship as non-believers are in their cunning business transactions. Have mercy on our naivete in matters of the world, where crafty manipulators and religious con artists eagerly prey on the poor and powerless . Amen.*(Inspired by Luke 16)
Assurance of Pardon: Take heart, for Jesus calls us to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. Being a Christian doesn’t mean being stupid. It does, however, demand a tough choice between worshiping at the Stock Market’s altar and following a Galilean carpenter who never owned a home. Jesus calls us to be good stewards of our earthly wealth, managing our finances in ways that mirror God’s kingdom. Jesus didn’t make any bones about it: The good news is always bad news first – “You cannot serve God and money.” Ouch! Thanks be to God for such an inconvenient truth.*(Inspired by Luke 16)
Thought for A Sabbath Day: “Life begins on the other side of despair.” - Jean-Paul Sartre