Day of Pentecost

Eternal God, our Father, we come to be in your presence. Yet we know that no house is big enough to hold you and your power. We gaze in awesome wonder upon all that you have made - we think of the growing knowledge of your universe and of the world within ourselves - and we can sing, "How Great Thou Art!" We confess that we become proud and self-sufficient when we forget you and seek to make our own way in this world without prayer and faith and worship and commitment. Then we confront the mystery again, and our restless hearts, and the wreck we make of life. Truly you have made us for yourself and our hearts will always be restless until they rest in Thee. We stand with Peter and cry out, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life"!
So help us to stay here until the blessing is given. Like Jacob of old, may we wrestle with you and not let you go until you have blessed us. Like the prophets, if the vision tarry, may we wait for it.
We believe, our Father, that much of our difficulty is caused by our unwillingness to change. We are afraid of change - yet we live in a world where change is swirling around us. Can it be that your Spirit is in our world, breaking up our old patterns of living; seeking to cleanse our stagnant pools; calling us, as Jesus called Peter and James and John and so many more, to leave their old manner of living and come follow Him. We confess that we are like Nicodemus - puzzled over being born again when we are old - yet we still hear Jesus saying, "You must be born again". O Lord, call us again over the tumult of our life's wild restless sea. Let the winds of the Holy Spirit blow through us as on the Day of Pentecost.
We are many. We are from varying backgrounds and many families. Our needs are so different that sometimes we think we have more problems than anyone else, and are called on to suffer more than anyone we know. Cause us to hear Jesus saying today: "Your Heavenly Father knows your needs; not a sparrow falls to the ground without His care; the very hairs of your heads are all numbered". And may we therefore be able to bring it all with the mysteries of our existence the questions we cannot answer - the sorrow we cannot explain - and believe that God cares with the care of Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen