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Guiding Prayer For Our Season of Fasting: 

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 trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom,the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Myself in Truth

Holy Father, you have told us there is one thing you will never deny your children: your spirit.  Father, may your Spirit be a uniting presence in this place.

Nurtured and Nurturing 

Holy Spirit, be a uniting and healing force of grace in our families and in our relationships.  

The Gathered

May the love and grace of Christ pour forth from our united community of faith into a world in need of this redeeming power.  We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, one God, united in love forever and ever.  Amen.

If you ever struggle with knowing there is a God, take a brief moment, stop what you are doing, and walk outside.  Close your eyes.  Take a big, deep breath.  Allow calmness to take over your body.  Then open your eyes again and look around.  Unless you are trapped in an urban jungle, more than likely what you will see is God's creation right there in front of you.

I find very little in life helps remind me there is a God than taking a moment to quiet myself in the goodness of God's creation.  Nature is awesome.  Take a walk sometime in Raven Rock Park.  See the grandness of the towering trees, the smallness of the plants and insects that scratch and crawl their way around the undergrowth.  

The beauty in all of this is if we were to lose any one part of it, if any one part gets off kilter or ceases to exist, the whole system is thrown off balance.  Dam up one river, cut down one forest, kill too many of one species in an area, endure a natural disaster like a fire or hurricane.  Any one of these things can cause untold amounts of damage to the surrounding area.

Nature is an awesome thing.  But is also a delicate thing.  It has many moving parts all working in concert with one another to produce a livable environment for us all.  If one part breaks down, the whole system breaks down.  This is why it is so important to take care of God's amazing creation.

But just as nature attempts to hold in concert a delicate balance of moving parts and species, so too does the church.  The church is made up of many parts and pieces known as people.  They are all different.  They all have different strengths and different gifts.  When they are all working together, as Paul says, with Christ as the true head then the church is a vibrant, living, breathing tour de force of the grace and love of Christ.

But what happens when conflict enters the church?  What happens when division grows where unity once stood?  What happens when someone gets upset but instead of approaching the other party to right the wrong, they simply get angry and decide not to deal with or support that person anymore?

Ministry suffers.  Grace turns to bitterness.  Forgiveness ceases to exist.  The Spirit of Christ is quenched, the flame of His love slowly and painfully extinguished.

In other words: Satan wins.

This is why this week we are seeking healing from division.  This is why uniting under a banner that is bigger than ourselves is so important.  This is why time and time again throughout his ministry, Christ tells his followers they must put aside their own wants, their own desires, and they must seek what is best for the church.

At the end of the day, this is not our church.  It is Christ's.  If we will be willing to unite under his banner, there is no telling the great and awesome deeds that will be done in this place in the name of God.  Let us continue to pray that this will be so in each of us so that it may be so in all of us.

-Amen-