Mary Rawlinson provides our prayer for today. Please join us in praying with Mary and adding our own prayers for the Commission on the Way Forward, our United Methodist Church, and the decisions that will need to be made.

O, mysterious God, you come to us;
as we listen for your will,
as we remember again the story of your arriving.

You asked Mary to risk everything and rejoice in it.
You revealed your glory to workers living in the fields, inspiring them to go quickly to find you.
You sent John from the wilderness to the crowds,
calling tax-collectors, soldiers, and everyone to repent and bathe in your grace.

Make us people who live your story for this day,
responding faithfully to your asking, revealing, and sending.
Inspire the United Methodist Church, its congregations, clergy,
the Commission on a Way Forward, and all who are straining to hear you right now.

Strengthen us in risking everything to follow your goodwill for all the world, and rejoice in it;
repenting our own sins and entering the river of your grace,
together with people, we may have been taught to fear and despise.
Send us quickly to the places your glory is revealed,
to the crowds, where people live and work and sleep outside.

So that as you arrive, and keep arriving, in our hearts and in the world,
we might be people of your story –
all kinds of people who risk and rejoice and act boldly,
in awe of your glory and grace –
through the mystery of your will,
the fierce love of your Christ,
and the rousing power of your Holy Spirit.

Amen.