St. Nicolai Notes

 PRAYERS FOR MARCH 2023

 March 5

Sermon Text: John 3:1-17

 That we may understand the gifts You offer and stretch to receive them

 God, enable us to trust You fully. Enable us to receive your word and live as people who fully believe what You have promised.

Abraham believed You when believing required pulling roots from everything that was familiar to him. It required making a long stretch to receive what You were offering. You promised a multitude of descendants and a world blessed through him and his descendants, even though he and Sarah were well past the age of childbearing.

Most of the time, what You ask of us does not require such a thorough uprooting or dramatic reach in order to receive the blessing You offer. But we refuse to stretch ourselves. We refuse to take the risk. We refuse to receive the dynamic blessing You have for us that will deeply enrich others around us as we trust You.

Help us comprehend what You offer us through the history of your people, Israel, and through the life and instruction of your Son, Jesus. Help us trust enough to allow the transformation that only your Spirit can generate as it blows freshly and wildly through our lives. Move through us as we open ourselves to your love, your Spirit. Move through us and continue to bless the world You created and are redeeming for your glory. Amen.

 

March 12

Sermon Text: John 4:5-42

That we may life fully into the new life and hope we found when You met us in Jesus

God of all creation, in Jesus You have humbled yourself to meet us where we are. You step over and around boundaries that separate us from one another. You step past fears of pollution in order to converse with, touch, and associate with people who have often been considered beyond the scope of your concern.

You establish common ground with us in our need. You meet us with our woundedness. You meet us as sinners who have turned from You. You meet us in our arrogant delusions of self-sufficiency. And you meet us in our honest questioning and confusion.

When our hearts are open, You meet us as bearer of good news, instructor, sovereign one, healer, liberator, source of forgiveness, and empowering one. You enable us to see ourselves in the light of your glory, in your penetrating truth, and in your embracing love that gives new life and new hope.

We rejoice that You have met us in Jesus. In Jesus we have found You and found ourselves. May our lives show forth your presence and love each day. Amen.

 

March 19

Sermon Text: John 9:1-41

That we will celebrate your healing work and welcome those You have healed and would heal in your compassion

Jesus, we rejoice in You! We rejoice that You came among us as God’s Chosen One, the embodiment of God’s character and reign among us.

We rejoice that You did not affirm standard views that illness and disability were automatically the result of personal or familial sin.

We rejoice that You came as one who was able to do the works of God, to bring new order out of chaos, new life out of paralysis or death.

Thank You for coming among us as one who gives sight to the blind and insight to the those whose spiritual perception is confused or obscured.

Enable us to receive the insight You would give us. Prevent us from hardening our hearts against the results of your compassionate action among us. Do not let us deceive ourselves into believing that we see clearly when we still resist your gracious, healing actions.

Enable us to welcome those You would heal and those You have healed, even as we rejoice in the various ways that You have worked healing and given new sight to us. Amen.

 

March 26

Sermon Text: John 11:1-45

That we may be Jesus’ willing partners in the work of forgiveness, healing, liberation and new life

God of wonders, we rejoice that You sent Jesus among us as the embodiment of your presence and character. In Jesus, we have gotten glimpses of your glory. We have encountered your Word. We have experienced your compassion. We have seen You bring life from death.

And we have received new hope for courageous discipleship in tumultuous times.

God, we have welcomed Jesus as your agent and our instructor and friend. We are thankful that he identified with us so fully that the death of a friend caused him to weep. Your life-giving action through and in Jesus have caused us to believe in You and give You glory.

Though, at times, we confess that the good Jesus did, the new life he offered, the transformed lives that we tell about, have caused us to resist him, because they have disrupted some facet of our lives, some things we thought we controlled, some profits we thought to gain, some advantage we did not want to give up.

Keep our hearts open to Jesus’ transforming work. Enable us by your Spirit to be Jesus’ willing partners in the work of forgiveness, healing, liberation, and new life. May all glory be yours through Jesus. Amen.