Friday Prayer

 

Week four of living with Lazarus’s story is set free into the world.  This week we asked ourselves, “Where am I most alive?”  “Where do I long to go?”  And, “who will go with me?”  I pray that you listened to your life AND let God get a word in edgewise.  I hope God’s wisdom surprised you and showed you a way to be alive or courage to head in a new direction or person who could travel with you.  I pray God rolled away a stone in your life that was blocking or showed you a new pathway.  I pray for our church that we would be honest about the ways we hurt and harm others in the past and present.  I pray our church would find new ways to honor one another as created in God’s image.  I realize and recognize my humanity.  I confess that sometimes I stay silent because of fear, hypocrisy, and hatred.  That economics can too often convince me to do or not do something.  Lent is a time to be honest.  Lent is a time to weep just as Jesus wept.  Lent is a time for God’s liberating love to move in new ways for you and me.  Tonight we will welcome two scholars who have studied Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman to help us understand his wisdom for today.  May our church not only study, but embrace and embody the story of Lazarus’s resurrection as a way toward life and liberation and love in this world today.  Amen.