This is the prayer for the day, Sunday, May 24. It is loosely based on Jonah’s prayer (Jonah 2:2-9)  when he was in the belly of the Big Fish. 

O God of the Deep,

We call out to you Lord, in the midst of our swirling, troubled world, that seems to be swallowed by this virus.

We call out to you and know that you hear our voice.

It is hard to believe that this world, which you called Good, has turned on us in so many ways, and yet it has. Between the changing weather patterns, that spell doom for much of humanity, and this virus, we are sometimes tempted to ask for a recall on the earth.

Yet, it is our own arrogance that brought us to this place. We believed that were masters of the world and could make your creation subject to our every whim. We believed that we were invincible, and that we could control your creation.

We believed in our economy, in our health care systems, in the hallowed utterances of science, and saw these things as our savior, forgetting you in the process. And now, those things we once believed in have failed us. Our economy is on the ropes, our health cares systems is overwhelmed, and the deep truths of science have become mired in politics.

The issues of the world today have closed in over us, and deep troubles surround us.

Yet it is you who rescue us from the deep, you who bring us up from the pits we have dug for ourselves.

In the midst of staying in place, and wondering if we will ever get back to what we once called normal, we remember you, and remember that our call is not to recreate the old world we knew so well, but to work with you on the New Creation, which  you bring about.

You hear our prayers, as soon as they leave our lips; you hear them before they become fully thought out in our minds.

But we give voice to these prayers, not so you can hear more clearly, but so that we can better direct our concerns to you.

On this memorial day we remember and give thanks for the people who have their lives to protect our country. And we pray for those who have a brother, a daughter, a sister, a son, a father or a mother, or a friend from the fire of battle.

We also remember on this day, those who have given their lives to protect us in hospitals, and care facilities, those on the front lines of the battle against the corona virus. And we pray for those who are in the midst of the battle even as we pray this morning.

So, God of light, and God of love, enfold us in our tender arms. Bring us to through faith, from this raging ocean of confusion, uncertainty, and chaos, and onto the solid Rock of faith, knowing that you have delivered us, and given us the vision for your Kingdom, here on earth, as it is in heaven.

And together we lift up our voices, to pray the prayer you taught us to pray:

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.