Worship Prayers for May 4

CENTERING PRAYER 

Great Creator and Sustainer, we love to hear the story of how you created the universe. We thank you for the beauty of our part of the earth, and especially for animals you have helped us bring back from the brink of extinction to fill our landscape again in recent decades: the wild turkey, bald eagle, trumpeter swan, fisher, timber wolf, peregrine falcon, and sandhill crane. As Christ arose on Easter, help us resurrect the harmony you intended for all you have made. Amen. 

CALL TO WORSHIP 

In the beginning, the Spirit of God moved over the waters, and God said “Unbind creation and let her out!” and God declared it to be Good. God said, “let there be light” and called the light “Day” and the darkness “Night.” and God declared that the difference was Good. God spoke the word to call the land from the water, pulling the waters down to the depths and raising hills above the waters, and in God’s eyes they were Good. God’s word called to life the soybean and the milking cow, the robin and the earthworm, the honey bee and the gray wolf, the microbe and the muskie, and God’s heart saw them to be Good. Then God spoke a final time, making creatures who carry the divine image: us. Forming humans by holy word, male and female together, to tend and steward all that God had made. And God declared that it is all Very Good. On the seventh day, God rested. And on this seventh day, we come to worship and remember our role as partners in creation

PRAYER OF CONFESSION 

Our beautiful blue and green home is an awesome, awesome gift. Yet we trade clean air for the power of convenience, clean water for easy waste disposal, and wilderness for elbowroom. We marvel more at our inventions than over your creations. Share your wisdom and teach us how to protect the best, and restore the rest of your rivers and mountains, seas and prairies, wetlands and forests. Guide us in living sustainably, being satisfied that “enough” is enough of a feast, and not consuming more than we need. Guide us to repair and replace your Very Good: our habitat, climate, and food web. Send your spirit over the waters again; stir us to action, justice, and wise choices. We pray we can be a part of bringing back creation to glory and peace. Amen.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Affirmation of Faith written by 2009 Eco Stewards For the Faith and Environment Conference, Montreat, NC 

I believe in God, the Creator and Lord of all that is. In your hand is the life of everything-- of trees and plants, animals and insects-- and the breath of every human being. I believe in Jesus the Christ, the Redeemer of all that we have damaged, our broken souls and our broken world, who offers new life when we love our neighbors, neighbors sun and soil, water and air. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Sustainer of this community and future generations, and the source of hope and courage to care about creation, especially when sustainability seems hopeless. We promise to work together and with God, to be stewards of this gift, our home. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE 

Holy One, our God, receive our thanksgiving for the wonders and beauty of nature. Creator God: Renew the earth. Open our eyes to the intricacies and diversity among all living beings. Creator God: Renew the earth. Remind us of our interconnectedness with each other and every created thing. Creator God: Renew the earth. Forgive our actions and inactions that have harmed the earth and its creatures. Creator God: Renew the earth. Grant us courage and hope in the face of climate change and climate injustice. Creator God: Renew the earth. Strengthen us to participate in the mending of all that has been harmed on earth. Creator God: Renew the earth. Graciously accept this prayer through Jesus Christ, your Son, by whom all things on earth were created and in whom all creation holds together. We ask all of this and more in the name of Jesus who taught the disciples to pray saying:

THE LORD’S PRAYER (Special version from the NEW ZEALAND PRAYER BOOK) 

Eternal Spirit, Earth-Maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all. Loving God, in whom is heaven. The hallowing of your name echoes through the universe! The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the earth! Your heavenly will be done by all created beings! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth. With the bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us. In times of temptation and test, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.