A Resurrection Prayer
O Risen Lord, be our resurrection and life.
Be the resurrection and the life for us and all whom you have made.
Be the resurrection and the life for those caught in the grip of sin and addiction.
Be the resurrection and the life for those who feel forsaken.
Be the resurrection and the life for those who live as if you do not.
Be the resurrection and the life for those who do not believe they need resurrection and life.
Be the resurrection and the life in churches that believe they are dying, and in successful churches who don't know they are dead.
Be the resurrection and the life in us who know the good but fail to do it, who have not been judged but still judge, who know love but still live for self, who know hope but succumb to despair.
Be the resurrection and the life for those dying of malnutrition and hunger.
Be the resurrection and life for those imprisoned unjustly and those imprisoned justly.
Be the resurrection and life for those who live under regimes that seek to crush all who proclaim resurrection and life.
Be the resurrection and the life for those in the throes of sickness that leads to death.
Be the resurrection and the life in families where the weak are maltreated by the strong.
Be the resurrection and the life in marriages that are disintegrating.
Be the resurrection and the life for women trafficked and enslaved by the forces of wickedness.
Be the resurrection and the life for those whose lives are snuffed out in the womb.
Be the resurrection and the life for anyone anywhere who knows suffering and death in any form, and for Creation itself, which groans in travail.
Be the resurrection and the life in the life we share and the fellowship we enjoy, that filled anew with the wonder of your love and the power of your grace, we may go forth to proclaim your resurrection life to a world in the grip of death and yet on the verge of redemption, a redemption promised by you and assured by what occurred on the first Easter morn.
Amen.
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Related Elsewhere:
Previous articles related to Easter include:
Mercifully Forsaken | There is a reason Good Friday is called good, and why we can be thankful when God forsakes us. (April 21, 2011)
Heaven Is Not Our Home | The bodily resurrection is the good news of the gospel—and thus our social and political mandate. N. T. Wright (March 24, 2008)
A Manifold Resurrection | Why the risen Jesus met people in five different ways—and still does. (April 5, 2007)
Star Trek Into Darkness
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Comments
YOHAN JOHN KUNNENKERIL
I actually liked those words "all whom you have made" because it includes everyone in this world, those who believe and those who do not or are yet to. A fine prayer in terms of the perspective, depth and width. I wonder though it says " Be the..." ; my attitude is that I know He is all this, but it is I who do not recognize it, and so when I pray it usually is " Thank you Lord that You are.... but help me Lord to know this deeply and have faith in it.... YJK
Liz Ball
Jack, the prayer helps us move beyond the safe and vague generalities into the specific needs of our world. Certainly. God knows all these needs, but we, his people, are frequently not paying attention--not only caught up in our own lives and situations, but usually in a hurry. Often superficial. Often narrow. It also helps us remember. As we pray each petition we can pray for those whom we know need prayer, or who have asked us to pray, even those who have no one to pray for them. And perhaps it opens our hearts and loosens our tongues to include people and situations beyond what is here. I see needs all around me, many people ask me to pray. When I go to pray, I need all the help I can get to remember. An expanded prayer like this is also freeing: it takes me beyond my own limited (sometimes boring or cliched) patterns and language; it gives me a way to express what is in my heart, for which I have no words or struggle to find words; it plants in me a seed for deeper prayer.
jack saunders
Not really sure why this prayer when past the second line. 'for us and all whom you have made' - surely that covers everyone ever. Seems like one of those 'prayers' written for an audience other than God.