Oh Great God, we lean upon your compassion and mercy today. Our hearts are troubled, our minds disturbed, and our spirits reach out to you for the sake of our sisters and brothers across the world.
Bring true justice to the world, Oh God.

We lift up the families in Kenya whose loved ones were murdered in the attack on Garissa University.
Give them comfort, Oh God.
We lift up those around the world who are bought and sold into slavery, with little hope of escape.
Give them hope, Oh God.
We lift up those refugees fleeing their home countries, Syria and others, because their lives are endangered and terrorized by war and corruption.
Give them respite, Oh God.
We lift up those in Japan whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed by earthquake.
Give them shelter, Oh God.
We lift up those living and dying amidst civil war in Yemen
Give them safety, Oh God.
We lift up the loved ones of those killed by suicide bombers in Beirut, Lebanon, and those who were wounded in the attacks there.
Give them healing, Oh God.
We lift up the people of Paris, those whose lives were extinguished by bombers and gunmen, and those who remain in mourning.
Give them peace, Oh God.

Where there are violence, terror, war, and trauma,
Bring the Way of Peace.
Where there are suffering, mourning, and heavy hearts,
Bring the Balm of Gilead.

We cling to the hope of Christ, whose kingdom is now and not yet, coming and near; whose ways are unexpected, whose love never fails, and whose justice will rule the earth.
Come, Lord Jesus

Grant us ways to participate in advancing your kingdom and your justice, through prayer, service, hospitality, generosity, kindness, and love.

We say with the Psalmist:

      Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens,
      Your faithfulness to the skies.
      Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
      Your justice like the great deep.

Amen

To you, God, we turn to have our hearts filled with love.
Give us new wine skins and fill them with new wine.

We remember that your love is for all people, and that the blood of Christ was shed for all:
For the accepted and for the marginalized
For the poor and the wealthy
For the weak and the powerful
For the ill and the healthy
For the simple and the nuanced

We remember that forgiveness does not have regard for the nature of sin; it merely smiles, nods, and sends it on its way; irrevocable, irretrievable.

Hallelujah.

We confess our tendency to think we are better than others.
We confess our pride in minimizing our own sins.
We confess our being blindly certain of our limited understanding.
We confess our snatching the right to judge out of the hand of Jesus, whom we say we trust.
We confess our letting go of our God-given right: to love our neighbor.
We confess our worship of our own ideas about Jesus, rather than the actual Person of Jesus.

It is to that Person that we cry now:

Have mercy on us according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out all our iniquity and lead us in the way everlasting.

Amen