God’s Field: Service Prayers for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany – Year A, February 16, 2020

O people of the plains, the cities and the mountains,
we of all colors, theologies and life choices,
we are God’s field.
Come into God’s sanctuary with joy!
You have cultivated us, O GOD.
Let us vine and blossom
And bear the fruit of your integrity.

O we of mustard seeds and wheat,
we of little faith and great, we come.
We come to the Living Waters,
to the Sun of love and light.
We will drink of your ways, O GOD,
and we will sow your seeds.

O, all who are of the world,
come and see what GOD has grown.
We come to worship you.
We stand in the sunshine of your living word.
We prosper in your paths, O GOD,
as the lilies of your field.

God of grace and majesty, we exalt you
Creator of all living things,
you live with us today,
shining like the February sun,
and promising tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
The crocus tells us you are near
and the snow-drops make vows you alone can keep.
May we find you in every blooming thing beneath the snows of our
lives.
May we see you in the brightness of the morning
streaming through these windows.
May we know you in the promise of today and today and today –
becoming, always becoming.

Righteous God, we confess with sorrow
that we often forget who has given us light,
who has made our garden grow with waters of love.
We forget your living word
and move off your paths to serve our own worldly desires.
We leave your cultivated field
to venture out into the wilderness on our own.
We quarrel with one another trying to decide “who is the greatest.”
We make our own faces the benchmark for all faces.
Help us to remember Jesus,
reconciling the whole variegated world in himself.

Thank you for calling us back,
for never giving up on us when we turn aside,
for always loving us,
even when we forget who we are and who you are.
We know you, as the greatest Gardener of all,
who has promised always to replant us in flourishing fields.

Give away yourself and your resources, so you can grow.
Give away your beauty and your energy, so your neighbor can grow.
Give away your love and hope, so that this church can grow.
Give, as you have been given.

These gifts are our fruit, O God of all fields.
Each giver has made the choice between life and death, blessings and
curses.
We choose blessing. We choose life.
May God’s promises be fulfilled
through the harvest of God’s garden in these our gifts.

The Law of Moses says:
“You can have life or death. Which will you choose?”
We choose life.
“Obey the commandments of the Holy One, your God,
loving God, and walking in God’s ways, and you will grow.”
We choose to grow.
The Law of Moses says:
If you turn to your own ways, you will perish.
We choose God’s ways.
The Law of Moses interpreted by Jesus says:
“Love God above all and love your neighbor as yourself.”
We choose to walk that talk. Amen.