A Concord Pastor Comments: NIGHT PRAYER: Wednesday 1/6

Like many of you, I'm shocked, dismayed, embarrassed and disheartened by what took place today at our nation's Capitol building. This Night Prayer is all I can find words for: a simple plea for peace...

Lord,

we're so much in need of peace,

the peace that's only yours to give...

We pray for peace, Lord,

the peace that comes from you alone...

We plead for peace, Lord,

the peace to heal our deepest wounds...

We hunger and thirst for peace, Lord,

a peace we cannot give ourselves...

We pray for that peace

that begins not with us, Lord,

but always and only with you...

Protect us, Lord, in your peace,

day and night, enfold us in your peace

that awake, we might keep watch with you

and asleep, rest - in your peace...

Amen.

Two versions of a musical setting for tonight's familiar song:

the first by my favorite contemporary composer, John Rutter

and the second the more familiar composition by Sebastian Temple.

Lord, Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace

by John Rutter

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
and all for thy mercy's sake.

O divine Master:

grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born
to eternal life.