People's Prayers

Monday, September 29, 2025

Prayers of the People: Testimony ~ 17th Sunday after Pentecost WLWC* ‘25 Yr C

For Sunday, October 5, 2025; Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10, Psalm 118:14-26, 1 Peter 1:10-12,

John 4:27-30, 39-42

How beautiful upon the mountains for the feet of one who brings good news, proclaiming peace, proclaiming salvation…the Holy One of Old has comforted God’s people…all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. [Isaiah 52:7, 9b, 10b]

The Mighty God is my strength and my might and has become my salvation…The Merciful God has punished me severely, but to death did not hand me over. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Fount of Justice. This is the gate of the Living God…This is the day that the Creator of All has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it…[Psalm 118:14, 18-20a, 24]

It was revealed to the women and men who prophesied that they were serving not themselves but you all, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you the good news—gospel—by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven… [1 Peter 1:12]

…The disciples of Jesus came while [he was speaking to the woman at the well…The woman left her water jar and went back to the city and she said… “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Might he be the Messiah?” Many Samaritan women and men from that city believed…because of the woman’s testimony…and said, “no longer because of your report…we ourselves have heard and…this is truly the Savior of the world.” [John 4:27, 39, 42]

We begin this last week of using Dr. Gafney’s* Lectionary with her opening words in her section of “Preaching Prompts”: In the multifaceted tradition of the Black Church when one has survived difficult and or dangerous times, events, and circumstances, including death and disease, it is common to say, “She’s got a testimony.” The community of the prophet writing as Isaiah are the survivors of the Babylonian captivity. With God showing undiminished power in the restoration of these people and their return to Zion, their testimonies about God as Liberator remain as the bedrock of our faith, unchanged to this day.

The Psalm, then, is the liturgy of return. It, too, is a testimony of one who has been delivered as an individual, beyond the usual idea of the Israelite return as a corporate action.

The writer of 1 Peter’s testimony is reminding us that given the extraordinary length of time of the Israelite exile, liberation became merely a faint hope of an unfulfilled promise, but the promise was fulfilled and salvation was accomplished. And yet, in our times, we wonder, given all the oppression, real and being attempted, in our current life and world, can we hold our faith that our liberation and salvation will come?

So enters the Samaritan Woman at the Well. Last week we looked at the beginning encounter between her and Jesus. An amazing moment for Jesus to be speaking with a Samaritan let alone a Samaritan woman who held her own as the conversation began. Then Jesus recounted episodes of her life to her astonishment. When we left off last week, she said that she knew that the Messiah is coming and “he will proclaim all things to us. Jesus said to her, ‘I am, the one who is speaking to you.’” [John 4:25-26] In this week’s reading she has left her water jar to go into town and tell the people what he has said to her. Remember, this is a woman who has had 5 husbands and is currently living with a man who is not her husband. We do not know the details, we can surmise that her reputation may be at least slightly less than sterling given her relationships past and current, and, there’s the thing that she’s a woman, after all, which also lessens her credibility significantly. Yet her faith in him was so strong she went straight to her community and said, “He told me everything I have ever done” and with such conviction that “many Samaritan women and men believed” her. They themselves went to meet Jesus and asked him to stay with them, and he did for two days and many more believed in him. Her testimony brought the others to Jesus, and no doubt they brought others after their time with him. SHE became a preacher of the Gospel, an evangelist bringing the good news to her Samaritan neighbors. No doubt some weren’t impressed but many were. It is the way of the faith journey. God comes to us in many and various ways. We are told that God liberates and saves and perhaps we expect great miracles to happen when sometimes that transformation of life and circumstance becomes a quiet moment of a change in our attitude toward faith. The car still has issues, the rent is due, the kids are sick… yet there is a long slow deep breath in, through a moment of a “help me” prayer, that feels like rescue enough to go another day.

In the Revised Common Lectionary for this Sunday, we hear again the parable of the mustard seed. A tiny capsule of nature that grows into an enormous tree providing its fruit and shade and leaves and branches for humankind’s use with food and shelter for our Creator God’s other creatures.

As was the Woman at the Well, we each are tiny capsules of nature. We are also preachers of the Gospel by the testimony of our words and actions. Even the faintest hope of an as yet unfulfilled promise is faith enough to grow on, to share, and to hold onto, to celebrate in times of light and joy, and to curl up with in darkness and grief until the light returns. Every life is a testimony to the power of our Creator. What shall we do with it?

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Living God, Fount of Justice, fill our hearts with the blessed comfort of your eternal Presence, and instill in us the courage to be a living testimony for you our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, as the foundation and cornerstone of our very existence.

O Merciful God

RESPONSE: Our strength and our salvation

~ Living God, Fount of Justice, we pray to you for the removal of evildoers and perverted judgment from the chambers of all who govern on this Planet, in this Nation, and in this Community. Bestow upon all victims of violence, poverty, bigotry, and war crimes, the fullness of your righteousness, justice, and relief. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

O Merciful God

Our strength and our salvation

~ Living God, Fount of Justice, give ease to all who live with distress in body, mind, or spirit, and give physical and spiritual rest to all who give them care. We now join our hearts to pray for those in need… add your own petitions

O Merciful God

Our strength and our salvation

~ Living God, Fount of Justice, may the joy of our loved ones, now freed from earthly bondage, shine brightly in immortal life, through the light and glory of the Risen Jesus. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

O Merciful God

Our strength and our salvation

~ Living God, Fount of Justice, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials, aloud or silently… add your own petitions

O Merciful God

Our strength and our salvation

~ Living God, Fount of Justice, we lift up in thanksgiving all who are ordained to bring us the good news of your Salvation and Grace. With the Holy Spirit’s guidance, may they proclaim the Gospel that illuminates your purpose and prospers our souls. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

O Merciful God

Our strength and our salvation

The Celebrant adds: Generous One, remind our impatient hearts to seek moments to rejoice in every day that you create, in difficult as well as easier times. Inspire us to nurture the fragments of faith within our souls that gather our thoughts and words into positive and generous action for all we meet. We ask through our Savior Jesus, our Christ; and the Holy Spirit, the Prompting Voice within us; who together with You are One God, now and forever. Amen.

*Readings for our Parish to this point in Year C have been from The Rev. Dr. Wilda [Wil] Gafney, Womanist biblical scholar, and the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Yr C, and others in her series, and translator of its biblical selections. I definitely commend her book for the complete readings, to Clergy and Laity, for her "Text Notes," and “Preaching Prompts” whether or not you will use them in your Liturgies/Services/Preaching. We give great thanks for this time with her work for Year C of the Lectionary cycle. There is much to learn from her work to inform every facet of our lives in Christ. To learn more about her and her work, see her website: https://www.wilgafney.com/

Join us next week, October 12, 2025, as we begin our 7 Week Season of Creation.

We return to the Revised Common Lectionary on the First Sunday of Advent

for Year A, beginning November 30, 2025

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Prayers of the People: One Tiny S.E.E.D. ~ 17th Sunday after Pentecost '25 RCL Yr C

For Sunday, October 5, 2025, Readings: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; Psalm 37:1-10, 2 Timothy 1:1-14,

Luke 17:5-10

The wicked surround the righteous – therefore judgment comes forth perverted….For there is still a vision for the appointed time...it will surely come…Look at the proud…their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith. [Habakkuk 1:4b, 3a,c; 4]

Take delight in the Lord…Commit your way to the Lord and put your trust in him… [Psalm 37:4a, 5a]

…I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you...for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. [2 Timothy 1:6-7]

The Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." [Luke 17:5-6]

Habakkuk is irritated. He will not give up his complaint until he gets God’s answer and he does! The very descriptive language of his frustration speaks directly to our own times and the answer he gets is clear if not exactly a swift resolution. The Psalm appointed for today is a perfect follow up: Have patience, keep on track, do good, commit to and trust in God, for evildoers shall be cut off in the appointed time, wait for it.

And so while we are waiting, it is, certainly and always, the Gospel, with a little help from the 2nd letter to Timothy, that gives us our focus – the apostles, with relatable human impatience, ask Jesus to "Increase our faith!" Jesus reminds them, and us, that all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed and we would be able to command whole trees to uproot themselves and be replanted in the sea. These are metaphors whose underlying meanings are worth pondering, however strangely mixed – did you stop and wonder: why would we plant a mulberry tree in the sea?

Moving on, there are many varieties of mustard seeds across the many regions of the Earth, and those Jesus speaks of are nearly as small as the period at the end of this sentence, yet they hold within themselves the ability to produce enormous trees. No magic intended here, just nature as created. But thinking of something so tiny taking such deep root and growing so large can guide our understanding of the potential in our own imperfect faith. Whether in days of seeming uprooted-ness and feeling all at sea, or in times of feeling securely well planted, we are reminded by these readings that we have all that we need within us. We aren’t called to understand how or why it all works, just to believe that it does and it will.

How great our own eternal future if we merely remember the good treasure, our holy calling, the grace that has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. How wonderful to know that when we seek to rekindle the gift of God that is within us, the fertile seeds of faith and trust have already sprouted in us with the help of the Holy Spirit.

It is also important to remember that having “true faith” doesn't mean freedom from doubt. And when the doubts creep in, don’t panic. Wanting to have faith is enough, and even wanting to want to have faith is enough. Those times are examples of having faith if seemingly less than robust to us than what we think we observe in others. We are opening ourselves for the Spirit to till the ground of our beings just by the wanting.

Accept as naturally human that in this life there are moments of distance, occasions of dark nights and gray days. Trees need pruning now and then and so do our souls. Some of those times are longer than others and it is in such times, as the Psalmist tells us, we are to be still before the LORD and wait patiently. Write a list for yourself, adding or deleting from time to time, of ways to encourage yourself to spend some time with the Sunday readings. Consider some ideas and ways of how to pray a bit more or a little more often, if only just breathing in and out with the name of Jesus on your lips, in your mind, and in your heart, perhaps you’ll remember to say a simple thank you for the food on your table at mealtimes. All the while our work of faith, present or awaited, goes on in small and ordinary ways, as in even a slightly cared-for garden. No worries about how large or small a faith seed you have. Our level of faith isn't meant to be quantified, only recognized for its power, for its sufficiency, for its enough-ness that will bring us to our spiritual fulfillment in and with God's grace and purpose, in God's appointed time. Just as watching and enjoying any planted seed grow in a windowsill pot, or a large expansive garden, one tiny seed of faith nurtured with even a single word of prayer as simple as “help,” offering caring words and actions toward others, reading a quote or paragraph or more of an inspiring source can produce Soul-filled Energy Every Day. Just by imagining it, you are planting your One Tiny S.E.E.D.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ God of Mercy, Grace, and Peace, may we allow our tiny seeds of faith to renew our right spirits, rekindle the gift of You living within us, and place our trust and hope in You.

Lord of Salvation

RESPONSE: We commit ourselves to You

~ God of Mercy, Grace, and Peace, we pray to you for the removal of evildoers and perverted judgment from the chambers of all who govern on this Planet, in this Nation, and in this Community. Bestow upon all victims of violence, poverty, bigotry, and war crimes, the fullness of your righteousness, justice, and relief. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Lord of Salvation