Martin Luther Service Prayer
Divine Spirit, be with us as we consider yet again the great questions.
If we reasoning creatures become given over utterly to reason, help us to consider that there might be light to be found beyond reason.
If we are struggling with the pain of fresh wounds help us to have confidence that they will heal, and help us to regard our scars not with bitterness and resentment but as medals of survival and marks of our beautiful uniqueness.
If our inclination is to be like the fabled three monkeys, covering our eyes, ears, and mouths so as not to perceive or speak evil, help us to be more honest and braver than that, accepting that with faculties alert we will contend with evil and good as well, and knowing that we can and must speak for the good.
Let us say with Martin Luther, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
And if we look backward, help our looking to be not only in the spirit of seeing how far we have come but also of looking for things of worth we might have dropped in our haste to move forward on our journey.
Amen
Chapel member, Marta Hardy, wrote this prayer for a service in which she reflected upon her Lutheran (Missouri Synod) heritage in North America. (January 2016)
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