Sermonstudio

We come to your house this day, our Father, to open our hearts to you, to thank you for your loving-kindness, and to acknowledge our deep dependence upon you. We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. We have made the little concerns of this earthly life so important that we have neglected your will for us. We have concentrated so intensely on schemes to get our own way, that we have forgotten your ways. We have allowed desire to lead us where we should have been led only by you. Forgive our blindness and our willingness to be drawn away from the highest that we know. Renew a right spirit within us, O God, that we may be released to continue the building of your Kingdom among people.

We are thankful that even when we reject you, O Lord, you do not reject us. You are continually pouring out your blessings upon us. We are grateful for each new day of life, for opportunities presented, for challenges undertaken, for victories won. We are thankful for the lessons taught by defeat, by sorrow, by illness, and by sin. Help us to learn by every experience of life the ways in which we should go. We are thankful for the confusion and conflict of our day which cause each of us to think clearly on issues we might well neglect. Help us to be participants, not spectators, in the major crises that confront humankind. We are thankful to be part of the Church of Jesus Christ which is set face to face with a changing order. Help us not to bemoan the changing scene, but to seek new ways to confront the world with her Living Lord.


Come close to us, O God. Teach us the greatness of your presence. Bless those who lie on beds of pain. Sustain the spirits of those who know that they are close to heaven's door. Quicken the spirits of those who must make the decisions for many people. Break the hardness of heart of those who have turned from you.

This day we give you special thanks for your servant, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We remember with gratitude his life among us, and pray that as he laid down his life for the cause of liberty and justice and equality among people of all races, no forgetfulness of ours may make him to have perished as though he had never been.

And now, O Lord, we pray that you will cleanse the hearts of every person that the kingdoms of this world might indeed become the Kingdom of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.