Prayer for the Week: December 1, 2014

This Sunday marked the beginning of a new church year, the season of Advent opening with apocalyptic words from Mark 13 telling us all to keep awake and keep watch. Isaiah readings called on God to “Rend the heavens and come down!” Like the authors of these texts, we too live in a world too full of violence and repeated injustice. Where is hope in such an atmosphere? Rev. Kent reminds us that hope is the opposite of denial. Instead it begins with the willingness to face just how bad things are. Only when we know the illness can we seek the healing required. Only when we know exactly where we are can we plot a route to where we hope to be. Fearing that we won’t be seen as “perfect” we let our fears push us to desperate ends. Fears and insecurities drive nations to kill and govern poorly. Fear keeps us from our best self, the one God is calling forth.  Advent, therefore is not a time for a pretense of perfection. It’s a time for assessment and crying out for what should truly be and what we might truly become, freed of fears. Even if we are not there yet, advent reminds us to refuse resignation and trust in God to aid and bless. Here is the prayer Matt Jadud offered so beautifully this morning. May it be a blessing for your week.
Lord of every silence, as winter blusters and dead leaves fly, we cling desperately to the idea of a world flourishing in your greening grace. Wind-blown by violence and greed, separated from true life by the seeming necessities of “making a living,” we pray for some new spring of hope. We pray for the renewal of safety, of healing, of sanity among your people. We are afraid and we don’t have all the answers, and so we ask you: in our weak moments, in our dark times, come and restore us. Come and build within us a season of transforming assurance. By your presence, by the coming of every child, remind us that hope is planted deep within every moment. Grant that we may “fear not,” keeping watch for the springing day even in the nights of winter.  Restore us, O Lord. Restore us in Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.