For those who await test results
For those who contemplate what feels like monumental changes in living situations
For those who care from afar
For those who have received diagnosis
For those in new treatment regimens
For those awaiting new homes in Timbercrest
For those wondering when to seek help
For those recovering, bit by bit, from surgery
For those who have received good news from their medical team
For those who provide care as friends and church family
For students finishing up a semester
For teachers finishing up a semester
For those in new grief and ongoing grief
For those who still feel like outsiders
For those facing changes that are unsettling
Bring all of our hearts together now as we continue in spoken prayer;
O God
It feels so much like the world is torn apart,
bodies and families torn apart,
personal hopes and dreams torn apart.
We mourn the state of things; personal, local, global.
We look to you for hope.
For change.
For a holy action that can come and undo all that we have done to one another.
We look to you for hope.
Come again, into our lives.
Come again, bit by bit, like the lighting of a new candle each week,
to overturn what feels so wrong,
as we await what that spreading light.
Come again, into our lives.
You are within us, each one of us, for the endurance of our living. You are the breath within,
calling to us as beloved individuals, even as you have created each of us to be part of something
so much larger, to belong to something so much more.
Charge us to turn the tables, to see the lowly rise,
to see the haughty brought down,
to see wealth and power redistributed
so that all who are hungry are fed,
all who are grieving are held,
all who are waiting are not alone.
And in this turning, turning, turning of the world,
Let us see that we are all just human
in need of a sacred connection
that opens our eyes and hearts and actions toward one another.
In this turning, turning, turning,
in the flip,
in the change we see that we are all one, and that;
The mighty become the ones in poverty
The needs of the lowly ones are met
The exclusive walls are brought down for all
No one suffers alone
Hands reach for neighbor and enemy, till there are only neighbors.
All war ceases.
This third Sunday in Advent,
let us hear the revolutionary cry of a young woman,
allow us to hear that song of change deep in our bones and our flesh.
Let us await a birthing of Jesus within us,
for this is a birthing of good news.
Let us realize as one,
that the Christ child has already come in order for us to turn the tide.
For you,
O God who lives and creates and is action right now,
have done great things,
and holy is your name.
In that holy name we pray. Amen.