O God of Love
Let us not lose sight of what that Love is made of.
Love that is made from endurance and surrender
Love that is made from forgiveness and healthy boundaries
Love that is made from actions personal and quiet
Love that is made from so many things,
how can we possibly be faithful and true to all,
to you, to ourselves within that command?
This love, this agape, is too much for our human hearts to live out.
This love, this agape, is so much, and we hope for its flow toward us,
even as we grasp what it means to be a viaduct from you, through us, to the people all around.
In this quiet moment, we are open to you.
In this moment we quiet ourselves perhaps for the first time in days, and we replay hurtful things we’ve heard from another.
In this moment, we quiet ourselves in the safety of this community, long enough to hear our own hearts and acknowledge our own transgressions.
In this quiet moment, we offer our vulnerable and very real selves.
Bless the Lord our souls, who leads us into life.
//
O God of life, of thinking minds, of beating hearts, of bodies that work,
of inner transcendent mysteries within,
We don’t always know what we are doing.
But hear our prayers that we lift to you, with earnest hope.
It is easy to come to you, O grand mystery that creates and is creating still.
It is easy to come to you, with the name of a beloved on our lips, words spoken for their healing and wholeness.
It is easy to come to you, O mystery of all things, and profess our everlasting love.
It is hard to come to you, to confess our actions that have hurt another, and so we hide it in the forgetful shadows of passing time.
It is hard to come to you, to acknowledge that we limit our gracious spirits toward our neighbors, and wish them to handle their lives so we don’t have to.
It is hard to come to you, dulled from the day to day.
But you, O God, invite us into this hard space of loving
fully, completely, wholeheartedly, unreservedly, beautifully, awkwardly,
with tears and laughter
with fear and trembling
with loss and growth
Because you know
That it leads to life.
Like the greatest river of water in the desert.
Like the songs sung in protest and hope to wake up and heal the nations
Like the smallest pollinators whose warm return starts the greatest harvest.
You command us to love. It is the way.
Bless the Lord our souls, who leads us into life.
Bless the Lord my soul, who leads me into life.
Bless the Lord, who leads you into life.
Amen.