We are using prayers from the Rev. Ernest Campbell’s collection “Where Cross the Crowded Ways” each week in our Lenten Devotions. We got started off well this week, with a period of prayer, reflection and sharing of our faith and lives. It worked really well! We encourage you to join us: Wednesdays (until April 1) at 7:15 pm via zoom.
Each week, the prayer for the next Wednesday will appear in the preceding E-pistle; it will also be posted on the church’s Facebook page on Monday or Tuesday before each Wednesday…
For Wednesday, March 4, 2026:
1
O God, our maker and our God, the giver
and sustainer of life, we bless your name at all times. Your praise continually rises from our grateful hearts.
We thank you that your power extends beyond the prowess and achievements of humankind, that our towers never do quite touch the sky, that always you are more than we have thought or preached you to be.
We thank you that a fall of snow can hobble a mighty city, that strong headwinds can slow our jets and make us late, that heavy rains can force a cancellation of public events, that high seas command the respect of our sturdiest oceangoing ships. In short, we thank you, God, for everything and anything that humbles us before the mystery of life and keeps us from the folly of worshiping the works of our own hands. You alone are God, and together we bless your holy name. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2
Be pleased to hear us, Lord, as we pray for this city and its inhabitants.
Teach us how to add community to proximity; how better to use all the time we save by not having to commute; how to ward off hostility by running the risk of letting our humanity come through; how to relate the Sermon on the Mount to life on the hill or in the valley.
Give us the good sense to ignore the oratory of the hatemonger, and keep us so honest about our own sin as to rise above the need for scapegoats. Bless those in authority over us with patience and understanding, with loyal colleagues and citizens who care. And guide the inhabitants of this renowned metropolis into paths of meaningful service and courageous action. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
3
O God whose will for us is life and not death, forgive us the blindness and perversity that keep us from choosing life; help us to act on the truth we know lest we lose it and fall back; spare us the hypocrisy of assuming that our convictions are objectively pure while our neighbor‘s point of view is slanted with self-interest; when our grasp of you is weak, keep firm your hold on us; when what you are is most hidden from our eyes, help us to cling to what you command.
May it be our joy and uppermost intention to rest in you, to work for you, to become like you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
