St Michael’s Vaucluse 26 Nov 2023: Feast of Christ the King

Let us pray for the world and for the church.  Almighty God, we come before you in prayer, Lord, this last Sunday of the Christian year, looking forward and backward, acknowledging the One who holds both the past and the future.  The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Truly you are a God who hides yourself”.  When terrible things are happening, we ask why do you do that?  Where are you?  Even the prophet Habakkuk asks, “Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?  Why are you silent when the wicked man swallows up the one more righteous than he?”

With so many global issues going on, with so much suffering and distress, we who stand on the brink of Advent are anticipating the coming again of Our Lord Christ.  Lord, your son said, an hour before he went up to be betrayed, then tortured and executed, that in this world we will have tribulation but to be of good cheer for You have overcome the world.  We pray that our anxieties about minor things may diminish as self-forgetful acts of faithfulness become signs of the world to come.  

We pray for peace in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan; for permanent ceasefire; for those who have power to make decisions for good; for compassion in their hearts.  We pray for the children, widows, the elderly, those who have lost their homes in war-torn lands.  Uphold them and protect them.  We pray for the safety and welfare of the remaining hostages in Gaza, and we pray for an end to racial vilification in this country.  

We give thanks that in the cross and resurrection of your son You have given us everything necessary to live in these times of dark uncertainty.  We look forward to Advent, a time when we examine ourselves and repent of those things that don’t face the light easily; a time of expectation and hope – Christian hope that perseveres when human hope has exhausted itself.

We pray for your church, for Stuart, Jeff and Matt.  We pray for Stuart and Jane as they prepare to leave us and go on new ventures.  We give you thanks that you have ministered to us through their work here.

We pray that you will bring light into the darkness of those who are grieving and suffering.  We know you descended into the hell of the absence of God.  You came out from the light and went into the darkness to be the light in our darkness.  And so we pray for those who are ill, suffering, in mental or physical pain.   We especially pray for Allan Russell, hospitalized with fractures and bruising after an accident; for Chris Butt with Covid; for 4 year old Sophie Hay facing heart surgery on Monday; for Raja Banda who is struggling; for those caring for family members with dementia.  Uphold Allan, Chris, Sophie and Raja and their families and carers in your loving hands; and although they, and we, see through a glass darkly, we do – through the eyes of faith – at least glimpse something; and we believe that what shall be in the end will not end but continue, and will make complete what we now know only in part.

Almighty God, you have promised to hear our prayers. 

Grant that what we have asked in faith 

we may by your grace receive, 

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.