God of Our Fathers and Mothers,

There is nowhere we can flee from your presence. If we find ourselves overcome with joy, you are there, and when we make our bed in graves, you are also there.

Today, we thank you for the gift of Fall mornings. We thank you for our city. For the dog-walkers, subway workers, for halal cart owners, for doormen, for union tradesmen, Louis Vuitton shopkeepers, for sing-alongs w. God, this city has a way of breaking down my vision of scarcity, for blurring the boundaries that I can so easily draw around “who belongs where.” Thank you for that. May life here in this place open us all up to something of the abundance of your Creation.

Lord who Heals our Wounds, today we pray for those amid healing. We pray for those who are feeling the pinch of aging. For those who find themselves less mobile, those who are grieving a life so well-lived and yet one that has passed by too quickly. We pray for couples struggling to become parents, and for those who are struggling as parents. For those unpaid because of our government shutdown. We pray for the unemployed and the under employed. When we feel like one more rejection might undo us, O God, hold us together.

Teach, O Healer, to see you at work in this world – amid the histories that carry so much anger and violence. We prayer for our world and all its vulnerability. We pray for Madagascar, for its political unrest. We pray for our siblings in Palestine. For women and queer people around the world in places that suppress the beauty of their personhood. We pray for Christians in Nigeria and Indonesia.

But, O Lord, help us pray for ourselves when we need it. Be kind to us in the season of political vitriol. We pray for our city’s election. For the hopeful and the fearful. Break our leaders hearts open for justice, and give us the wisdom to hold them accountable. We pray for Eric, our Mayor; for Kathy, our Governor; and for Donald, our President. Transform their hearts. Transform our hearts.

For things said and unsaid we tether our prayers to the words your son taught us as we say together…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.