pastoral prayer

12/16/12 We had our annual Lessons and Carols service, so I did not preach on Sunday.  I did pray the following:

Gracious God, Merciful Savior, Ever Present Spirit,
Today along with the Christmas carols we sing, we also sing a song of lament.  We cry, we weep with the people Newtown, Connecticut.  Their tears are ours.  Their children are ours.

We weep with all of the innocent ones who get caught between the fighting sides of civil war, who get ground down by poverty, disease, famine, loneliness.  We join our voices with Adam and Eve, who from the very beginning wept when Cain took his brother Abel's life.

Today, our only hope, God is that the Christmas carols are true.  That you have come and are coming in Jesus, that you took on our flesh, that you join us in our vulnerability.  We sing and believe that you came as a baby--like us, a wondering child--like us, a suffering human being--like us.

Today, we hold our children, and all children near us, near you.  We weep....and we hope.  May the Christmas carols be true.

Amen.