A United Methodist Pastor's Theological Reflections

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory (nikos) through our Lord Jesus Christ." - I Corinthians 15:57


Sunday, January 21, 2018

Pastoral Prayer (Jan. 21) Athens First UMC



[Kappa Phi, a campus ministry group that meets in our facility blessed us with another delicious baked potato & chilli fundraiser meal following our 10:30 service. Next Sunday, they will be back to help lead our worship services for Kappa Phi Sunday. We are blessed to partner with them in sharing the good news of our faith with the people of our university community. Speaking of good news, here is the sermon link.]


O God, we thank you for the good news of our faith that reminds us that death is never the last word. And because of this good news, we look forward to that time in the future when all of your people will be gathered together in your glorious kingdom. What a great day that will be!

Some say the streets will be paved with gold and there will be no need for salt trucks and snow plows. We won’t even have to wonder if it’s a level 2 or a level 3 outside. I heard that the golf courses there are unbelievable, but I think that’s just speculation.

Anyway, thank you for the future promise that one day you will make this world the way you had always intended it to be. A world without pain. A world without suffering. A world without sin. A world without cancer. A world without any disease for that matter. Even a world without death, itself. 

As awesome as this future dimension of your good news is, what’s even more incredible is that this good news has already been set loose in this world thanks to the empty tomb of Easter. We see signs of your good news all around us. As the hymn says, your mercies are new every morning.

And so I thank you for the bright red cardinals who looked so beautiful in my backyard along the freshly fallen snow this past week. Your timing was impeccable since I was kind of grumpy about the weather that morning.

Thank you for our Tuesday morning prayer team this past week who made their way to our church through the snow and the bitter cold just so that they would be able to pray over all of the prayer cards from last Sunday. We were all blessed by their prayers on our behalf. What a great church this is! What a great God you are!

O God, in all of these ways this past week and so many more that I could have mentioned, your good news is available to us in any given moment thanks to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And it is in his name that with joyful hearts, we join together in praying, 

“Our Father, who art in heaven…”

No comments: