Holy One, you tell us through your apostle to let our requests be known to you. To come to you in supplication and with thanksgiving, so that your good gifts might be received by us, your children.

So we begin by thanking you, oh God, that we are together today in your name. We give thanks for all that brought us to this moment.

God of creation, we thank you for new life after fire, visible in Lahaina, Maui where leaves sprout again from their community’s 150-year-old banyan tree, burned in the fires there. Let it be a symbol to us of your resurrection promise. Let us continue to see signs of new life in all communities who are digging out from the rubble of earthquakes, digging out from the muck of flooding, digging out from the rising waters, too close to home. Help us to be symbols to each other through action courageous enough to plan for the thriving of future generations. 

Help us to rebuild in our lives, oh Lord. To invite your forgiveness into our hurting relationships, with each other and ourselves. Where we imagine scorched earth, help bring new life.

God, we know you to be a healer. Come now and be a source of strength and a refuge of comfort for all who are facing cancer or surgery, chronic illness or pain. For each person and family knocking on your door, waiting for it to be opened: be known to them in the waiting.

When we have no words for the prayers on our hearts, when we are too clouded by despair or anger or fear to even ask for what it is we need, we thank you for the prayers passed down to us by your servants through the ages. We thank you, God, for the prayers our grandmothers and uncles and friends have prayed over us, even without our knowing. And we ask you, oh God, for those of us with no words to express what healing it is we seek, help us hear you in the words of our neighbors and in the prayers of our worship. Help us to know that you, oh Listening God, hear deeper than words.

We pray all this in the name of the one who came to give abundant life, whose peace surpasses all understanding, as we pray in unison the prayer Jesus taught us, saying…

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.