Here is the text of my invocation tonight at our Rally for Equality at First UMC. 265 people attended.
Holy and everliving God,
Compassionate and Merciful,
We, your servants, are listening.
We come before you today on the eve of a great, historic debate for our city.
We come with some anxieties, unsure whether our efforts will bear the fruit we so desire.
Your prophet Isaiah has asked,
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
The Creator of the ends of the earth.
You do not faint or grow weary;
You give power to the faint, and strengthen the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
And the young will fall exhausted;
But those who wait upon You shall renew their strength,
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
Give us the courage to dream new dreams; to see new possibilities.
To look forward with hope, resting in your blessed covenant
That each day is a new day
That the heavens are ripped open
And your spirit is poured forth upon the earth
That a straight path might be made in the wilderness
And all your children will make it home.
So, today, with abiding faith and calm assurance
We invoke your presence on these proceedings.
You are the Creator and Parent of us all.
In your divine majesty you have made us each and every one an image of you,
Our splendid diversity reflecting your infinite glories.
You are our Redeemer and Liberator.
Companion to the poor,
You have promised to
Lift up the powerless and cast down the powerful,
To gather the outcasts,
Heal the brokenhearted,
And bind up their wounds.
You have proclaimed release to the captives,
Recovery of sight to the blind,
And to let the oppressed go free.
You Sustain and Comfort us
Filling us with your Holy Spirit
And thereby uniting us with all creation in every time and place
A fellowship of solidarity
A beloved community
Reminding us that what we have done unto the least of us, we have done unto thee.
We call upon this good news
In this year of the Lord's favor.
Give these elected representatives of your people
Courage and wisdom
That they might be instruments of your peace
Sowing love where there is hatred,
Pardon, where there is injury,
Union, in place of discord,
Faith, instead doubt,
Hope, not despair,
Light to cast away the darkness
And where there is sadness, joy.
We, your humble people, beseech thee.
And in all your many names, we pray.
Amen.
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