Prayers for Sunday July 8, 2001
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
5th after Pentecost, Proper 9

Call to Worship (Based on Psalm 30)
Leader: Sing praises to the LORD, Every believer give thanks to God.
People: For God’s anger is but for a moment, but God’s favor is for a lifetime.
Leader: Weeping may be with us for a day or two, but remember joy comes with the morning.
People: Thank You my God for turning mourning into dancing; and changing my sackcloth into silly hats.
Leader: Let us not be silent in our praise of our God,
People: instead let us praise our God again and again forever.

Prayer of Confession
We live in a world of pretensions. We live surrounded by our pretensions, our petty fears, and our desire to not really know the whole truth. We confess we live in a world full of images, of celebrates who often mean as much to us as our own families. We confess we live in a world were the characters in a TV drama can be more real than our own lives. O Lord, help us to set the unrealities of our lives aside. Help us to get beyond the images that overwhelm us and instead see the wonderfulness of the world around us.

Prayer of Dedication
O Lord, help these gifts celebrate the things we want to do. We know how easy it is to do things second hand, so help these gifts empower us to help one to one. Help these gifts send out helping hands and helping feet to those in need of a few moments with someone else who cares. Help these gifts send out caring hearts and caring minds to go beyond mere words and gestures, so that others can see you at work.

Pastoral Prayer
In a world that has glorified opinion and opinion polls, in a world where our petty irritations can rule not only our lives but the lives of others we ask You, Dear God, for a way to escape. In a world that tells us that we need to always be careful of our own importance our own ability to be assertive, we ask You, Dear God, for a way to escape. In a world were it is considered not only cool but also essential to be obsessed with self-gratification, self-improvement, and self-help, we ask You, Dear God, for a way to escape.
Dear God in a world of petty self-obsession with ourselves, help us to see that we not only harm ourselves with such a limited pointed of view we hurt our families and our friends. Help us get beyond our own importance and instead glory in Your importance in our lives, Dear Jesus. We pray in the name of Jesus who through humility has changed all our lives. Amen.