JUNE 13, 2010 "JUSTIFIED"

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Wondrous God, you have promised good to your creation establishing an everlasting covenant with us, your children. You, O Lord, have promised never to draw back, or change your mind, rejoicing in doing good to us with your whole heart and soul. We confess that there are times when we have drawn back from you, hesitant to trust that you will always follow through on promises made. We own up to our desire to be in charge, to decide our own destinies, to control the “horizontal and vertical” of life. Forgive us, Lord, when sometimes our devotion to expediency makes us short-sighted, implacable, and doubtful. Fill us with persistent faith, growing faith, flourishing faith, a mountain-moving faith, that propels us forward with a Christ-like heart toward your kingdom. Amen.
OFFERTORY THOUGHT
12 step meetings conclude with folks joining hands and repeating the Serenity Prayer. They finish their time together, hands still clasped, saying: “Keep coming back, it works if you work it.” In chapter 18 of his gospel Luke writes about the persistence of a widow who kept bothering an unjust and indifferent judge. She stood before him daily, until he could stand her persistent nagging no longer and granted her justice. Luke’s Jesus assures his disciples that God who is just will not delay in helping those cry out to Him day and night. In other words: “Be persistent in faith; it works if you work it.”