Prayers for Sunday April 8, 2001

Passion/Palm Sunday

Invocation or Call to Worship (Based on Ps 118:1,24,26,29)

LEADER: Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good; God's steadfast love endures forever!
PEOPLE: This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!
LEADER: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
PEOPLE: Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good; God's steadfast love endures forever!

Prayer of Confession

We admit the hardness of our hearts, the brightness gone from our eyes, the hosannas we have forgotten, the words of praise left unsaid. Let this day be a new beginning, where hearts are opened, lights are turned back on, and we speak the words of love and praise we have too long forgotten. Put a palm branch back in our hand and let us escape its irony and move into its gladness. Amen.

Prayer of Dedication

What is offered here is not much, O God. But it is what we have. Let it be a sign of abundance and the generosity of our hearts. In intimation of Your magnificent generosity and your extraordinary risk.

Pastoral Prayer

Grace has led us thus far, and grace will lead us home.

We have made this trip to Jerusalem so many times; we do know the way. It is Your way, a long journey but one, which takes us surely to home.

On our Way Home, O God, make sure we leave lots behind for the ones you love, the hungry, the homeless, as well as the spiritually hungry and the spiritually homeless. Lighten our march into the great cities, even our own cities and our own neighborhoods. Let today's holy parade be our own and let it be so open that no child or adult, no wheelchair or pair of crutches feels denied a part in it. Let the notion of "sideline" disappear as all of humanity turns towards the love you exemplify.

Give us a passion for peace. From Jerusalem to Belfast to Washington, and even in our own hometowns, the cities of our world are still places of violence and death. Inspire us with a fervent desire to work for peace, to strive for reconciliation, and to bring an end to hatred. Give us a passion for justice. Encourage us to speak the truth, so that wrongs might be righted. And give us a passion for eternal life, so that without fear we may freely give of ourselves, trusting that as we lose our lives in Your service, we gain our lives as members of Your everlasting household.

And let the grace of this journey be a part of the Holy Week that comes, our nights and our days. These things we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.