Our Lord God, What words do we have to say “We love you.” We have not learned the right words or the correct turn of phrase or the right image or symbol or syntax or sound that expresses what stirs within us.
We try to give expression to our thoughts and feelings -- words for this something so real yet so intangible -- so knowable yet so inexpressible.
But we have no words to speak of the unspeakable height and depth and breadth of that which we cannot measure, grasp, or understand. We come to say, “we love you Lord,” but the words worn out with use on lesser things feel so common and unholy.
At the mere hint of your presence our spirits leap within us like the infant John the Baptist still in his mother’s womb. Our spirits kick at the confines of human flesh and we are helpless to express what it knows – we are wordless.
At the mere thought of you, the Psalms teenage Mary locked away in her heart broke free and a melody beckoned her to sing “My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”
Your Spirit song lingers on the wind, sweeps through the trees, across the meadows, echoing down our dark streets and calls us to join with Mary to sing “… He has regard for the humble state of his servants ….”
Oh Holy Spirit, who searches our hearts and knows our minds intercede for us for we are like Mary looking in overawed silence at an infant face, stunned and speechless, pondering in her heart the great mystery that lay before her in a manger bed – God with us – Emmanuel.
Like her, we barely comprehend what you are unfolding around us and through us – unable to grasp how it is that you our God should reveal to us a light shining in the darkness that will never be extinguished. Nor that you should choose us to bear this light to others.
Dear Jesus, the world seems darker now and more unwelcoming than when you clothed yourself in flesh to live among us. Shine more brightly in this dark. We confess that in spite of your coming, in spite of your Holy Spirit we are often confused, uncertain, and afraid.
Forgive our timid faith. It is hard to see your thoughts and plans for us in a world that disgraces your good creation, defaces your holy image stamped on human hearts, and willingly descends into violence and chaos -- a dark world of corruption and intrigue, a world where infants and elderly and those too weak to run are ground beneath men and machines fighting proxy wars.
Satan is redoubling his efforts to destroy your Church, but we know you have put your Word of Truth in the mouths of all your children and covered us with the shadow of your hand and have said, “you are mine.” Help us then to follow the example of Mary who in the darkness of oppression and injustice of Roman occupation and in midst of her own confusion and uncertainty placed her confidence in you and said, “Behold the bondslave of the Lord.”
Believing that you have called us to shine your light in the darkness and will not leave us helpless, we continue to pray for family and friends and neighbors. We are hopeful but anxious because they do not know you. When we are with them guide our actions and choose our words. Teach us when to speak and when to be silent; when to act and when to refrain. Teach us how to yield to your Spirit so you can do your work in our weakness. Bring others close beside them who with gentle words and respectful action – who with grace and power – can show them the way out of the darkness.
May your abundant blessing be on those who abandon possessions and prestige and power and risk the love of father and mother and sister and brother and wife and child and all that the world holds precious in order to bear the light that the dark can never extinguish.
Today we continue to pray for the poor and vulnerable among us, young children, abused teens, mothers, grandmothers, and old men who have no home, nowhere to go, no way to help themselves and no one to turn to. Those whose earthly shelter consists of bits of cardboard, scraps of plastic and the threshold of a doorway. Those who lack dry socks to warm cold feet or gloves for icy fingers. Give us hearts of compassion that look beyond the smell and dirt and clouded minds to see you. Grant us thoughtful insight and teach us how to best participate with you to address their earthly and spiritual poverty.
Encourage those who, in your name, choose to live with the poor. Pour out your blessing on them. Renew their compassion. Strengthen their resolve. Bring them coworkers to share their burden and grant them moments of rest and refreshment.
Today we continue to pray for the two-thirds world – nearly six billion people who have not heard the Gospel and live in darkness, who like the people of the great city of Nineveh “do not know the difference between their right hand and their left.” We continue to pray for those born into a life of physical and spiritual hunger and distress; who sell themselves to idols and prostitute their bodies to fill their bellies. We continue to pray for the women and children who work in factories and workshops in far off places hidden from view – who make the shoes, the phones, the toys and gadgets we give each other on Christmas. We grieve that we have, as the prophet Amos has said, sold the poor for a pair of shoes.
Look with favor on those whose lovely feet “bring good news, announce peace, proclaim the good news of happiness: Our God reigns.” Protect those who like the Janssen’s in Taiwan, the Nelsons in Guatemala, and the Russian Pastors like Ioann Burdin who teach, and heal, and preach in dangerous and hostile environments unfavorable to your Church. Build a hedge of thorns around them and preserve their lives and the lives of their families for your name’s sake.
Bring us to repentance demonstrated in our patterns of consumption, in our financial generosity for your worldwide work, in our compassion for the helpless, and in our prayers for those who serve near and far in your name. May we embrace your will for us in your continuing work dispelling darkness, scattering the proud, pulling down rulers, exalting the humble, filling the hungry with good things, and declaring the year of your favor. “Behold your bondslaves, be it done to us according to your will.”
To the end of time and into eternity words will never be able to express what stirs within us as we wonder at what your mighty arm has done – Though words fail us, we will sing and we will pray. If the sun refuses to shine, and the stars fall from heaven; if the mountains tumble into the sea, and if angels fall silent before you, still we will sing – “We love you Lord. We love you Lord.”
In Jesus Name, Amen.
Written by Richard White for Sunday, December 11, 2022