Prayer for March 30-April 5, 2014 

Sermon Text: John 9:1-41

That we may live with clear vision and unwavering fidelity

Healing and enlightening God, we rejoice that You are able to open blind eyes to see light.  We rejoice that You are able to enlighten minds that have been blinded by sin, and the deceits of self-righteousness, to give understanding and wisdom.

Help us to be open to your healing power and love.  Help us to be open to your truth wherever we may encounter it.

Forgive us when we become skeptical of your ability to bring healing and change.  Forgive us when we are more inclined to question your healing works than celebrate them in glad worship. 

Enable us to live in the world with clear vision and unwavering fidelity.  Amen.

Prayer for March 23, 2014

Sermon Text: John 4:5-42

That we may help gather a harvest of healed and renewed lives

Redeeming God, we rejoice that we have met Jesus in the flow of our daily lives.  We rejoice that Jesus has enabled us to acknowledge the truth about our sins and our wounds.  We rejoice that Jesus has addressed the deep thirst of our lives that can only be quenched by your provision.  We thank You that Jesus has revealed himself as your Agent of salvation who causes enduring life to spring up within us and enables us to worship You truthfully and with every aspect of our being.  

God, make us quick to tell others what You have done for us through Christ Jesus.  Let us follow Jesus in doing your work and find that we are nourished and energized by doing so.  Give us a vision for the fields of witness and service that surround us, and enable us to gather a harvest of healed and renewed lives for your glory.  Amen.

I will be away from my computer for a few days, so I'm posting early.

Prayer for March 16-22, 2014

Sermon Text: John 3:1-17

You who make all things new, we rejoice in You!  We rejoice in Jesus whom You sent as your Agent of salvation.

We acknowledge Jesus as Wise Teacher.  We thank You for the signs he performed in the presence of many witnesses.  We  acknowledge and receive Jesus as Divine Son.

Yet, like Nicodemus, we are often slow to understand that we must be made new.  We want easy passage into the life of faith, but find that our old identity must die in order for us to be made new.  Sometimes this confuses and frightens us.  

But we desire and thank You for the new life You call us to and that You have created among us by your mercy.  Let your Spirit continually move among us like a cleansing wind that blows away anything dead and decayed, so we may breathe in new life more completely.  Amen.

Gifted by the Spirit: Lenten Prayers: 2014

Day 9: Friday: March 14, 2014     

Romans 8:14-17

     God of grace, we rejoice that You have made us your children and that You have given us your Spirit to lead us in faithfulness.  We rejoice that your Spirit does not make us fearful slaves, but adopted children who are given voice to call You “Father.”  We rejoice that your Spirit speaks to us and assures us that we are your children so that we may live boldly in the confidence of your love.  Thank You for making us your heirs in all things, co-inheritors with Christ Jesus our   Brother, Savior, and Friend.  May your Spirit enable us to suffer with Christ and share in Christ’s glory.

     Forgive us when we forget who we are, when we forget that we are yours.  Forgive us when we respond to You like fearful slaves rather than as deeply loved children.  Forgive us when we fail to trust your Spirit’s guidance and fail to believe the Spirit’s testimony.  Forgive us when we refuse to suffer with Christ and find no joy in Christ’s glory.

     Overcome our forgetfulness, our doubt, fear, and timidity.  May your Spirit assure and energize us beyond our expectations and in spite of our feeble faith.  Amen.

Day 10: Saturday: March 15, 2014

Romans 8:18-25

     Creator God, we rejoice in You.  We praise and adore You.  We thank You for the work of transformation that You have begun within us through the presence of your Spirit.  We yearn for the completion of your work of adoption, for we long to be wholly yours.  We long for our bodies to be fully redeemed, so that there is no disconnect between our desire to serve You and the response of our entire being in doing so.

     Maker of all, we rejoice that your healing intention is not limited to us, or to a few people, but that You intend to heal all creation and that You are responsive to the waiting and groaning of creation that we have barely begun to comprehend.

     We rejoice in your redeeming work in our lives even as we hope for your purpose to be achieved on earth as in heaven.  Amen.

Second Sunday: March 16, 2014

1 Corinthians 12:1-31

Do you see something there that you identify as your spiritual gift (or one of your spiritual gifts)?

If not, what gift or gifts have you been given?

Which gifts have been most evident in your life this week? 

What opportunities did you have to utilize those gifts this week?

If you are unsure about your gifts, in what ways were you able to help others this week?

Which ways of helping others seemed most true to you?

Day 11: Monday: March 17, 2014

Romans 8:26-30

     God of compassion, we rejoice that You have not left us to live out our faith alone.  You have not forced us to trust simply in our own initiative, our own ingenuity, or our own energy.  How graciously You have given us your own Spirit!  We thank You!

     Even when we pray your Spirit helps us.  Your Spirit compensates for our weakness and lack of discernment to make the yearning of our hearts known.  You know the condition of our hearts as well, and your Spirit intercedes for us so that your will may be done in and through us.  We praise You!

     Thank You for assuring us of your good intention and action on our behalf.  Thank You for choosing that our lives would be transformed in the likeness of Jesus, your Beloved and Obedient One.  Thank You for freeing us from our guilt and preparing us to receive your glory.

     We praise You with glad hearts today!  Amen.

Day 12: Tuesday: March 18, 2014

Romans 9:1-5

     God of truth, we rejoice in the presence of your Spirit.  We rejoice that when we speak and act in truth your Spirit confirms the truth in our conscience.  We thank You, too, that when we speak and act in distorted and deceitful ways, your Spirit confronts our conscience with the true quality of our behavior, convicting us when we sin, guiding us toward responses that more fully reflect your truth.

     God, we thank You that your Spirit speaks continuously to our spirit through consciences that are becoming more attuned to your word.  Forgive us when we ignore the Spirit’s voice of guidance and go our own way.  Forgive us when we settle for less that the true and the good for which you have created us.

     Enable us to open ourselves more fully, and remain fully open to your Spirit’s work within our conscience, so that we may serve You in obedience and delight.  Amen.

Day 13: Wednesday: March 19, 2014

Romans 13:1-14:7

     God our Creator, we rejoice that your Spirit has bound us together in your love.  We rejoice that your Spirit has given us many gifts with which to nurture each other and grow together in maturity as we minister to the world around us.

     By your Spirit, give us discernment of the things that are crucial to our lives together.  Enable us to see clearly where specific obedience is commanded and to act with patience toward each other in matters where conscience guides us differently.

     Forgive us when we look down on some brothers and sisters.  Forgive us when we judge one another.  Forgive us when we fail to act in love by acting in ways that undermine the faith of others, cause them to stumble, and cause good things to be called “evil.”

     Enable us to experience the righteousness, peace and joy the Holy Spirit gives by being sensitive and loving to one another, even in the midst of disagreement.  Let our first impulse be to please You in all things, to live and die as yours.  Amen.

Day 14: Thursday: March 20, 2014

Romans 15:7-13

     God of hope, we rejoice that in your wisdom You have invited us to share in the promises of your people, Israel, and to glorify You for your mercy to us.  We delight to sing your praise!  We rejoice in You with gladness!

     We thank You for the peace and joy You have given us.  We thank You for the presence of your Spirit who fills us so full of hope that hope overflows even in the midst of circumstances that seem grim and hopeless to others.

     We hope for the fullness of your salvation.

     We hope for an end of injustice among us.

     We hope for a fuller expression of unity among us.

     We hope for your healing to touch every dimension of creation.

     We hope that your Spirit will continuously energize and enliven us for robust obedience, witness, and loving service in the world.

     We hope because these things have not been fully experienced among us and because we trust in your unwavering ability to bring them to pass.

     You are our hope!  Always You!  Only You!  Amen.

Day 15: Friday: March 21, 2014

Romans 15:14-22

     God of all, we rejoice that your Spirit has empowered the witness of your disciples for many centuries.  We thank You for the signs and wonders that have sometimes accompanied that witness.  We thank You that through your Spirit, people of every nation have responded to You by believing in Jesus, and have received a share in your promises to Israel by being purified and set apart as your people for your purpose.

     We rejoice in You, for we have been beneficiaries of the faithful witness your Spirit energized.  We rejoice because we have been included in the scope of your promise.  We rejoice because your Spirit enables us to do good, gives us knowledge, and guides us as we teach one another.  We rejoice because your Spirit enables us to tell and re-tell the story of Jesus so that others might turn to You, share in your abundant blessing, and worship You with joy.  Amen.

Prayer for March 9-15, 2014

Sermon Text: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

God our Creator, you have created a world of stunning beauty and complexity.  We rejoice in the mystery of your creativity which exceeds even our best explanations!  We rejoice in our participation in the wonder of your creation! 

We recognize that much of the beauty we see is related to margins and limits: earth and atmosphere, land and water, skin and textured surface.  We thank you for defined boundaries and limits that help us make a way in the world.

As your creatures, you have given us great freedom in the context of a few limits.  But we commonly reject the wisdom of limits.  We want to live as though we are limitless.  We want to live as though you make no demand upon our lives, as though you give no commands that we must heed. 

We keep imagining that we want absolute freedom and autonomy even when lives lived from that impulse often devolve into chaos.  

Help us to hear your word for us in the midst of our lives.  Help us trust you in the midst of challenge and confusion.  Help us act with boldness and creativity even as we do so in obedience and fidelity.  Help us to abandon the illusion that we are gods.  Amen.

GIFTED BY THE SPIRIT: Lenten Prayers for 2014

     Last year, in a prayer guide called, “In the Spirit of Truth,” I took you through a series of prayers that were based upon references to the Holy Spirit in the Gospels and Acts.  This year, I pick up where I left off, in the final chapter of Acts, then take you through Romans, the Corinthian letters, Galatians, and the first two chapters of Ephesians (but I plan no additional booklet on this theme).  I do not hit every passage, only those which specifically mention the Holy Spirit (or Spirit, Spirit of God, etc.).

     In recent reading, I came across the following quote from Karl Barth:

     The Holy Spirit is the quickening power which underlies, capacitates and actualizes the act of the individual in the Christian community in its totality, giving to it both its distinctive character and scope and also its distinctive direction.  It is he who awakens man—each one in the form and to the task which He Himself allots to him.  It is He who endows him with the corresponding abilities and freedoms and powers.  It is He who enriches the whole Christian community with the endowment of the individual Christian, thus deepening and broadening its whole life, and extending its power for the fulfillment of its mission in the world (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV.2, 825-6, Hendrickson Publishers, Marketing, LLC, 2010).

     More inclusive language was not very common among us when the first English translation of his volume appeared in 1958, but I assume that Karl Barth would recognize the Spirit’s energizing, empowering work as the foundation for the faith of the women among us. 

     In a different vein, poet and author Luci Shaw, borrowing words from a review about a sculptor, writes, “I want the Holy Spirit to be the ‘something that grabs me,’ so that I too am eager to yield to the impulse to push the life of faith and the life of the mind to extremes” (Luci Shaw, The Crime of Living Cautiously: Hearing God’s Call to Adventure, p. 56, borrowing from Calvin Tomkins New Yorker article about Lee Bontecou, “Missing in Action,” August 4, 2003).

     Whatever else we may want to say, Christian faith is about being grabbed, indwelt, and energized by the Holy Spirit.  The prayers in this booklet reflect a desire that this be more fully true in our lives.

     This booklet is not a commentary.  Where you might want commentary, you get prayer.  The prayers may or may not help you with interpretive and theological issues.  But I hope they help you live your lives more fully aware of the presence of God’s Spirit within you, and more receptive to the Spirit’s guidance and empowerment.

     I have followed my usual pattern of writing prayers in the first person plural, as a reminder that we always pray as part of the church.  We are part of the holy people that God is creating for communion and for God’s own glory.  I know it often seems that we are unholy, solo stragglers in the faith, but the Spirit is at work within us, shaping us together for a future that we cannot fully envision.  One of the instruments the Spirit uses to shape us is prayer.

     I pray that these prayers will assist you as you open your life to the Spirit’s presence during Lent.  

David K. Antieau

Pastor

St. Nicolai United Church of Christ

3000 N. Kedzie Ave.

Chicago, Illinois 60618

GIFTED BY THE SPIRIT: LENTEN PRAYERS

Day 1: Ash Wednesday

Acts 28:17-28

     O Holy One, like your people throughout the ages, we are often insensitive to your call and your guidance in our lives.  Your Spirit impels prophets and preachers to declare the truth and call us to repentance, but we can barely hear them because of the loud shouting of our own desires in our heads and the deceitfulness of the idols we have shaped.  Prophet and preacher point the direction of our return to You, but we do not see the signs because we are looking in the direction of our own shallow interests.  Some days our hearts are as impervious as granite: inattentive and insensitive to You.

     Do not give up on us when we have chosen to be deaf, blind, and calloused.  Let the fire of your Spirit soften our hearts.  Let the truth of your Word overcome the noise of deceit and desire in our minds.  Let your Spirit open our eyes to your presence with us and your way for us.  

     Though we sometimes have strange ways of showing it, we want to be your people, O God, our God.  Help us not to impede the work of your Spirit among us.  Amen.

Prayer for March 2-8, 2014

Sermon Text: Matthew 17:1-9

O Holy One!

O Divine Glory!

What a vision Jesus’ disciples received!

And how we long for such a vision:

     Jesus, your Obedient One.

     Jesus, your Word, Giver of your new instruction.

     Jesus, your Promise Fulfilled.

     Jesus, Promise of new life to all.

     Jesus, Glory Revealed.

     Jesus, Incomparable Sovereign and Healer of

     creation.

     Jesus, Beloved and Pleasing Son.

How we long for such a vision!  But, instead, through prophets and apostles, we have received your Word that sometimes terrifies us.  We have heard your command to listen.  And we commit ourselves to listen and obey with every facet of our being.  Amen.