Friday, November 9, 2012

Opening Prayer - Board of Aldermen Meeting -- Friday, Nov. 9, 2012

Here is the prayer I led to open this morning's session of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. Many thanks to President Reed for honoring Christ Church Cathedral with this opportunity.

God, you are a God who implants vision in your people. And the vision you have implanted in all your people of every tradition throughout time is a vision of a promised land, a land where none of us are natives but all of us call it home. A land without power or privilege of the few but of a people working together for the common good. A heavenly city that makes glad your heart.

That city is not a place we reach all at once or a place that magically appears by itself. We know that we can only reach it through your leadership, but even as you lead us there, you have given us the charge to build it here in this City of St. Louis.

And because we know we will never build it out of despair, give us the gift of hope.
Because we will never build it out of fear, give us the gift of courage.
Because we will never build it out of division, give us the spirit of reconciliation.
Because we will never build it out of narrowness of mind, give us the gift of broadness and generosity of spirit.
Because we will never build it out of arrogance and hard-heartedness, give us the gifts of humility and compassion.

Holy God, if we are to pick up the tools to build this city, we need to lay down some other things we are holding onto pretty tightly. So I invite us here to lay down and release those things that keep us from picking up the tools to build this city that makes glad God's heart.

Aloud or in the silence of our hearts, I invite us to lay down the grudges that we might hold against one another. (Silence)

Aloud or in the silence of our hearts, I invite us to lay down the certainties in our own agendas that might prevent us from listening deeply and hearing God's voice in one another. (Silence)

Aloud or in the silence of our hearts, I invite us to lay down the pain and burdens we carry from all corners of our life and to let God carry those burdens and to seek ways we can help carry them for one another. (Silence)

God, we ask your blessing on this session. Implant in us a wisdom for the common good that is beyond us each individually but which we can reach together. Ignite in us a passion for the common good that will overwhelm any temptations to a personal good.

Finally, bind us together in the quest for the common good, the promised land, the heavenly city, for we know that the only way we will reach it is if we travel together.

Let the people say ... Amen.

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