Prayers for Sunday December 31, 2000
First Sunday after Christmas

Invocation or Call to Worship (adapted from Psalm 148)

Leader: Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens!
People: Praise God, all angels!
Leader: Praise God, sun and moon, and all You shining stars and galaxies!
People: Praise God, You highest and deepest heavens!
Leader: Let them praise the name of the LORD! For God commanded and they were created.
People: And God established them and fixed the limits and set things in motion.
Leader: Let them praise the name of the LORD,
People: For God's glory is above earth and heaven.

Prayer of Confession

Were did the time go, O Lord? Did we spend it trying to look good for ourselves, to our co-workers and families? Did we spend it trying to make ourselves alone happy? Did we spend it trying to find self-fulfillment or look fashionable?

We confess that we did not spend our time wisely. That we did not spend our time coming closer to You. We confess that we did not spend our time growing in wisdom. We come not only to confess our lack of wisdom but ask most humbly for You to help us to find that wisdom. We pray and confess in Jesus name. Amen.

Prayer of Dedication

We have many gifts we fail to see. We so easily over look most days the most basic of gifts, the time You have given us, O Lord. We come thanking You for Your
many gifts. We come to thank You for the time, the time with family, the time to work, the time to create, the time to love and the time to live. We come this time in thanks and we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

O God, we are on the threshold of a new year. Another year to fail and another year to succeed. Help us to not be weighted down by our failures and blinded by our successes. Help us to treat this new year as a clean slate as a real new year.

O God, time goes so quickly, and we find it frightening. It slips through our fingers and is suddenly gone. We try to capture it on film and video. We try to keep it in diaries and history. But it slips away. Or does it? Does it really go, or have we failed to realize that You are the God of time and space. Have we failed to notice that You are eternal. Have we failed to notice that You, O God, are beyond time. Help us feel just a bit of the eternity that you offer. The eternity we were allowed to glimpse on Christmas. We thank You for the glimpse of eternity and the eternity we know is ours because of Jesus Christ. Amen.