Transforming God
We come before you this day asking that you enter into our hearts, our bodies, our souls, to change them into instruments of your abiding peace. For as the world turns towards violence and hatred, we see in the news cycle stories of those who have turned against one another. We are here this morning to bring ourselves closer to You and your eternal purpose.
We confess in the presence of these witnesses our weakness and limitations. For we have not always been able to keep our focus on You. We turn our heads when confronted with injustice. We fail to hear the cries for help from our neighbors your children. In the distraction and demands of the everyday, we lose track of others around us who are in need. We stray from your Son’s call on that Day of Transfiguration, that we follow Him. For he calls us to love one another without ceasing, to deny the power of the demonic, to believe in His authority over all the earth.
And so it is that this day we begin another week turning our lives towards you. Shutting off the noise of the anxious, angry world, we are finally able to hear your Son’s words. We hear that we are to love one another without limits or reservation. He tells us to love one another, especially those for whom we feel alienation or distance. Jesus calls us to make peace with our sister or brother before coming once again before the altar of our faith.
Today in worship we reenact the Supper that He shared with his disciples so long ago, and again with us. And we name in our hearts those who we love in your Name: our friends, our family members, those sitting near us; those around the globe. These names we lift up in thanksgiving and praise, for our lives would be empty without them.
And then we hold up to you those who we do not fully understand, or appreciate, or connect with. Help us to be healed, to feel your divine Spirit that we can look beyond our own biases, our own limitations. Grant that we be lifted up by the reading of your loving words, the gift of the Sacrament this morning, the songs of adoration and hymns of praise. Help us in this renewal in you to see all persons as your creation, all as sacred in your sight, all part of your divine purpose. And in this divine spirit of renewal, of sacred healing, help us turn our hearts to truly love one another, to see each other as part of your purpose.
For we ask all this in the name of the transforming love of your Son, Jesus, who came to save us all.
Amen.