Prayers at Morning Prayer

Bangor Cathedral, Thursday 21 February 2018

Psalm 42, Genesis 42:18–28, Galatians 5.2–15

Even when we strip down,

even when we wear purple,

even when it is famine and fast,

we manage to avoid you.

We busy ourselves with responsibility and lists,

with gossip and feud.

We make ourselves safe

in the worlds we make,

judging what’s important, what’s urgent

in the scales we have weighted

with our status and pomp.

With self-assurance

we skip from the shadow of the cross,

we hide from the light of Easter dawns.

Yet you find us,

you command us

in Scripture and silence,

in the moments in-between.

You come looking for us

in stories

of brothers who betrayed,

of the betrayed who weeps,

of religious people who know all your rules,

and are scared by your freedom.

So come find us,

come command us,

come look for us today.

Make us live the stories

of our betrayal, our guilt, our pain, our weakness,

and tell them until we find forgiveness

of ourselves and one another.

Make us live the stories

of our strictness, our rigidity, our power, our pride,

and tell them until we share

your liberty, and freedom, and abundant grace.

Come find us,

come command us,

come look for us today:

we who are Joseph

and Reuben

and Jacob,

we who are Galatians,

and cast your shadow

and shine your light

and bind us tight

and set us free.

Amen.