PrayersCELEBRATING THE PEOPLE’S BIBLE

YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW

BIBLE SUNDAY 2011 : PRAYERSThese prayers for congregational worship are based on the passage in Nehemiah 8.1–4a, [5–6], 8–12. Feel free to use as few or as many of these prayers as you wish in ways that will complement your own church’s worship style or liturgy.

CALL TO WORSHIP The worship leader reads aloud Nehemiah 8.2–3, then leads the congregation in prayer.

The Living God who calls and summons now beckons us to worship.

This is a special day and the power of love bids us welcome!

The Generous One who breaks forth into human lives bids us listen.

The power of love invites us to find and embrace new life!

The One who offers abundant life for all invites us to praise.

The joy of God is our strength and source of praise!

As we gather to worship, to hear the Word read, proclaimed, reflected upon and sung, may the words of our mouths and the intentions of our hearts bring delight to our God and Saviour.

This day is holy to God. Let us celebrate! Amen.

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PRAYER OF ADORATION AND CONFESSIONRevealed or hidden, prophesied or remembered, loving God, you are always at work in this world that you love so intensely. We thank you for meeting us in this place – embracing, empowering and enlivening us as we read and share the story of your abundant generosity in loving us and all of creation. You have called us to walk your way of love through responses lived out in our everyday lives. But like our ancestors in the time of Nehemiah, our hearts weep, mindful of how far we have wandered from your Word and from your promises offered through Jesus, your Son.

Have mercy and deliver us.

We recall especially those occasions when we gave for a while but quickly withdrew because it was too costly; when we only dared whisper your name because we were ashamed that others might hear; and when we kept your love and wisdom hidden, afraid of sharing it as good news for all.

Have mercy and transform us.

Generous God, poet of abundance, you who have blessed us without counting the cost, forgive us for our tendency to calculate our commitment and for letting convenience determine our obedience.

Renewer of lives, forgive us and re-create us to become in words and acts a living embodiment of your love. Amen.

PRAYER OF THANKS AND INTERCESSION

We thank you, Ocean of Love and Fountain of Joy, for your encouragement not to submit to the spirit of despair, but to choose the more radical way of genuine joy. Living and loving God, you have made yourself known to us in many and various ways. We thank you for the written Word in which you reveal yourself to us; for keeping our eyes open to read it, our ears tuned to discern your word for us, our minds receptive to understand it, our hearts tender to feel it, and our whole beings energised to act on it. Your Word, with its life-giving, releasing, sight-giving nature, brings us joy, wonder and worship.

Make us a community of listeners, ready to stand up, to listen, to understand, to change and to act.

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We pray, conscious that God is at work in the whole of our lives and across the whole of creation. Loving God, for the presence of your Spirit in us – hearts, minds and souls – we give thanks.

Amen! Amen!

We pray, conscious that our prayers, rising like incense, will break into songs of God’s generosity in Christ. We pray for places around the world where the work of Bible Society is transforming young lives.

We remember the young people at Hanna’s orphanages and at the Light House home for street children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where Bible Society audio recordings give them assurance that they are loved, that they are someone, and that in Christ they have a future and a hope.

Gracious God, through your Word, pour your love and hope into the lives of these young people and those who care for them day by day. For your Word, for our words and songs, we give thanks.

Amen! Amen!

We pray, thankful that we are called to be bearers of treasures in earthen vessels and are blessed by God with a variety of giftings.

We lift up Bible Society’s mission to give people new encounters with the Bible using the arts and media through projects like the Enter the Pitch film competition, challenging new film-makers to discover and use the Bible as a source of inspiration for their short films.

Cosmos-weaving God, we thank you for the creative treasures we each embody. Fascinate and delight those working in the arts and media industries with your creative Word, and may they hear the whisper of your still, small voice drawing them to yourself.

Amen! Amen!

We pray for all those working to translate the Bible into many of the almost 4,000 languages which still wait for a translation, and for those completing and updating Bible translations in languages that do have one.

Communicator God, who knows our innermost thoughts and speaks tenderly to our hearts and minds, guide and inspire all those engaged in the task of passing on your Word.

Amen! Amen!

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We offer to God those who open Scripture in specialised ways – in audio recordings like You’ve Got the Time in the UK, and on Faith Comes By Hearing audio-players around the world, in Braille Scriptures and through literacy courses, offering new readers new skills and a surer grasp of God’s Word.

Inspiring God, for the lives, work and inspiration of all who contribute to making the Bible accessible, we give thanks.

Amen! Amen!

We remember the impact of the King James Bible on our language and culture, and we pray for the People’s Bible Roadshow and the 30,000 people it aims to reach.

We offer thanks for the modern-day people and tools which, like Ezra and the Levites, help us find our place in God’s story and enable us to understand and apply it in our everyday lives.

Enlightening God, open our eyes and ears to hear and our hearts to follow you, in lives that transparently reflect your life and love for all.

Amen! Amen!

Here the congregation could join in saying the Lord’s Prayer in their mother tongue or language nearest their hearts.

COMMITMENT AND BLESSINGThe blessing should be spoken responsively, while the leader and – if possible – all present each hold a Bible.

This is a Bible – filled with stories of people who have encountered God.

Those people are our people. Their stories are our stories.

We read these stories because we want to remember who God is, who we are and what we believe, so that we will know how to live today.

May God’s abundance uphold us. May God’s love instruct us. May God’s dream motivate us. May the Scriptures be made real in our lives today. God is with us. Amen!

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These prayers are written by Revd Dr Michael N Jagessar. Michael is Secretary for Racial Justice and Multicultural Ministry and Moderator-Elect for the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church.