Gracious God, as we gather around Thanksgiving table and
communion table, teach us to revel in every joy, great and small. Make us
lively to the giggle of children and the laughter of old friends. Light our
lives with love like a candle from within. Amid deadlines and datebooks, help
us to be teachers of the ways of your love, foremost by living into that love:
patient, kind, generous, humble, and steadfast.
Redeemer God, make all these waters living waters, whether
baptismal font or sink full of dinner dishes. Cleanse us of the worry that dims
our vision of your creation. Bring the waters of healing alongside the waters
of life that will scour us free of our sin, painful and hard and deep. Rain
your mercy down on those who grieve, for at this time when we remember the
incarnation of your spirit into a baby boy, our sadness is sharp for the ones
who made love incarnate in our lives. May those tears of love wash us of fear,
secure in the knowledge that love lives on in our life and eternally in you.
Sustainer God, make your presence known to us when the days
are hard. Heal us so that we may be healers of hearts broken by sin, by terror,
by war; by gunshots in city streets and in homes. Pour out your spirit on our
leaders that they might find the quiet of their humanity amid each new crisis.
Keep their hearts from being hardened by the enormity of the world’s suffering
and their nations’ pain, but instead make them full of hope, for you are in the
world.
Abundant God, may our practice of gratitude make us
generous.
May our love make us gentler.
May our joy keep us from fear.
May our hospitality to family remind us of the pleasure and
duty of hospitality to one another.
May our family bickering remind us how to disagree with open
hearts.
As we glory in plenty and grieve in loss, may we be mindful
of the humanity, the suffering and promise, of everyone we meet.
May we be mindful of your presence, your peace, your hope in
all to come. Amen.
