Saturday, July 2, 2011

A Prayer for Saturday, July 2, 2011

“To What Will I Compare This Generation?”

Lord, we acknowledge and confess that the kind of life we live can have an impact on the effectiveness of our witness; we furthermore acknowledge and confess that the impact is limited. Sometimes, people are going to hear what they want to hear, see what they want to see, and believe what they want to believe—both about us and about you.

So Lord, make us wise in the ways that we live.

But Lord, please soften the hearts, minds, and lives of those around us in this generation that they might be able to sense and to experience your love and grace; may they even sense them in us.

And Lord, whatever else they say about us and about the ways we live, please let them accuse us of being friends of sinners—and let that accusation be justified!

Amen.

“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:16-19)

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