Backpack Blessing for 2020

I realized that my normal backpack blessing prayer needed some alteration for this year (basically I added a paragraph):

Hi God!
Another School year is about to start.
And every day people load up these backpacks
with school work and notes to (or from) the teacher and lunches and snacks.
Keep the straps from tearing, the zippers from jamming or bursting.
Help the backpack avoid the mud puddle or the toilet bowl.
Help it stay where it belongs so it can always find its human.
Keep the precious papers put inside safe, not scattered over the street (or the kitchen floor). 

But really God we worry about the people who carry these things.
Keep them safe.
Keep them away from bullies, keep them from becoming bullies.
Make them brave enough to help when they see another person being bullied.
Sometimes school is scary, some days it seems too hard, some days we just don’t want to go.
God when this happens make us strong enough to keep trying,
remind us that learning means making mistakes so we can try again,
help us find the good things even on a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad day. 

 

And while we are at it,

we worry about all those other people.
The teachers who prepare and present lessons,
the parents who send their children off to school (sometimes worrying about what the day will be like),
the bus drivers who get kids from one place to another,
the people at after school programs who take over when the bell rings.
Help them too God. 

This year God, is special.
We know every year is special but this one is different. 

This year we have a whole new set of possible worries and anxieties thanks to COVID-19.
School will look different this year, whether at the building itself or attending via computer screen and working at home.
Arrows on the floor, masks on the face, what will be in the heart and mind?
This year our prayers for safety carry a sharper edge.
God of Grace, help each child, each teacher, each administrator, each parent
have what they need for a successful, safe, healthy school year. 

God help us protect each other’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
So that we can all learn and grow together.
 

God you promise that we are not alone.
At home, at school, on the bus, and everywhere else you are there. 

Thank you.
Amen.

For August 30, 2020 -- To go with Romans 12:1-21

 

CALL TO WORSHIP
May the Peace of Christ be with you
And also with you
I appeal to you therefore brothers, sisters, and friends, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Opening our hearts and souls and very beings to God, we gather for worship.
Here we invite God into our lives, to transform and renew us.
Let us worship together, let us pray....

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Transforming, renewing, life-shaping God, through Paul you challenge us to do many things:
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
extend hospitality to strangers.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another
We do our best. We really do.
And sometimes we succeed, but sometimes we fall short.
Which is why we pray for Grace and Mercy, for the chance to learn and come round at it again.
Help us God! Forgive us God! Encourage us we pray
...time of silent prayer...
God is at work in us, renewing our minds and hearts, transforming our lives. Through Grace and Love God forgives us. Picks us back up, and leads us back out for another try. We are forgiven, we are loved, we are renewed!
Thanks be to God! Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
As our worship closes, go out into the week as people who have been transformed and renewed
We go as people committed to live as living sacrifices.
As you go remember Paul’s words to the Romans
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
extend hospitality to strangers.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another
We will do our best!

For August 16, 2020 -- Looking at Paul's Teaching on Eating Meat and Idols

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

The world is, as always, a tumultuous place.
We take a pause, we create a quiet space in the tumult to pray and listen and be with God.
Seeking to be refreshed and renewed so we can continue to live and love.
Come, let us worship...

Opening PRAYER

God of Community, we gather in our own spaces, separated and yet united with our family of faith.
As we pause to listen and pray and reflect, move in our hearts and souls.
Remind us what it means to be part of a community based on love and care for each other.
Restore our hope, re-energize us, fill us with what we need to live and love.
We pray in the name of Jesus, the one we call Teacher, Redeemer, Healer, and Christ. Amen.

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

Source of Life, you call us to live in community, loving our neighbours as we love ourselves.
And we really want to do that. We really try to do that.
And sometimes we do it well. Other times we could do so much better.
God of Grace, you call us to live in community, loving our neighbours as we love ourselves.
Help us find the balance point between our own wants and what best supports our neighbours.
In a culture that so often tells us that the individual is king,
reawaken in us the glory of being part of a community and putting the community’s needs first.
Push us to pause and ask how our actions can best support all the members of the community.
And in this way live out our call to be people of love.
God of Grace, where we succeed and where we fail to live out Love
help us keep living and loving.
---time of silent prayer...
God is Gracious, God is Forgiving, God is Loving.
Where we succeed God celebrates with us.
Where we struggle, God gives us the chance and the tools to try again.
And in all of it God loves us, so that we can love ourselves and each other.
Thanks and praise be to God! Amen,

Prayers of the People

God of community, we open our hearts, our minds, our very beings to your presence.
Together with the rest of your global community we come before you in prayer.
We look at the world around us and see the wonders of creation:
flashing lightning and rolling thunder,
the beautiful colours in the sky at sunrise and sunset,
fields of golden canola in flower,
the smiles and the twinkling eyes of the people we meet day by day.
Recognizing the wonders of the world we share our words of Awe.

Loving God, on this, as on every day, we join with our neighbours near and far
to share our concerns and struggles.
We pray with and for:
those who wrestle with illness of body or mind or spirit;
those who worry about next month’s rent, or the power bill, of groceries;
those who live with the threat of violence on a regular basis;
those who are dealing with the vagaries of weather and natural disasters;
those who stare into the reality of death and grief and loss;
those who feel lost and alone;
all those who need a dose of hope to counter the despair that life has brought them.
Remembering all the reasons people struggle in life we share our prayers for Help.

Gift-Giver, with the rest of your beloved children we say Thanks for the gifts we have received:
for family and friends and loved ones who share our lives;
for food on our tables and a roof over our heads;
for the laughter of children and the wisdom of elders;
for the wisdom of children and the laughter of elders;
for gifts so innumerable they can barely be listed we share gratitude and thanksgiving.
These things we pray in the name of Jesus, our Teacher and Guide, Rock and Redeemer.
And we join with Christian across the years and around the globe sharing words he once taught his closest friends...

BLESSING:

As worship draws to a close the week and the world await.
Go out into the world to live and love.
Go knowing that God: Love, Beloved, and Lover is with you each day.
Be blessed, and be a blessing. Amen.