This week we close out the church year and celebrate a day of Thanksgiving. On Reign of Christ Sunday (as this last Sunday in Ordinary Time is known), Rev. Kent posed the question, “What rules your heart? What is sovereign there?” Jesus’ reply to this question before Pontius Pilate was not the answer of geopolitical machinations. “My kin-dom is not of this world,” he told the Roman governor. Indeed.
Here is the prayer read by Hazel Morris at worship as we focus on some of the many things that can and do give us abundant life and abundant reasons to give thanks. The prayer is by Thom Shuman, for whom we are also very grateful.
Hot showers in the morning and cool breezes in the evening;
work that provides for our families, and abundance that makes us generous;
silly jokes told by third graders,
and the silent tears of a grandmother lost in her childhood forever.
Teachers who patiently help us with our math,
and mentors who keep us on the right paths;
friends who will shovel snow off sidewalks before we waken,
and employers whose hearts are greater than their profits;
piano teachers who smile at our repeated mistakes,
coaches who teach us (again)
how to curl the ball into the goal.
Dogs who bounce us awake early in the day
and cats who sleep on our heads at night;
grandfathers who teach us how to whittle
and sisters who give up a date to baby sit;
little boys who always forget to wipe their mouths
and folks who always remember to say ‘thank you.’
God in Community, Holy in One, thanksgiving is in every word we speak,
even as we pray as Jesus taught us, reaching to you as our Maker, our Mother, and Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name;
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
Amen.
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