Intercessions for Palm Sunday, 24 March 2024

Let us bring our concerns for our world to God and seek his guidance. We pray for the church. the world, our city and our fellowship.

[I have been influenced by a meme I noted this week on the internet:
I screamed at God for the starving child, then realised it was for that child God was screaming at me.]

Several times in these prayers there is an invitation for you to respond:

Through our lives and by our prayers
your kingdom come.

Lord, you rode straight into the power of the enemy to suffer and die;
give us strength to follow you to the centres of opposition in this world,
and the confidence which confronts power with love.

Through our lives and by our prayers
your kingdom come.

We pray for the church world wide.

Lord God, in Jesus, you came in the body, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone;
one of us with searing pain and delirious laughter.
We thank you that you did not remain an idea, even a religious idea,
but walked and wept and washed feet among us.
By your love, change our ideas, especially our religious ideas
into living signs of your work and what you hope of us.

‘Through our lives and by our prayers
your kingdom come.

We pray for our broken world riven by strife, and a climate under pressure from our misuse of earth’s resources.

Lord God, in Jesus your body was broken by the cowardly and the powerful.
The judgement hall of Pilate knew your silence as surely as your critics knew your voice.
Guide us that in both word and silence we may face the powerful of the world today:
Those whose word sentences some to cruelty or unmerited dismissal;
Those whose word transfers wealth or weapons for the sake of profit, hatred or prejudice;
Those whose silence condones the injustice that they have the power to change.

O Saviour of the poor, liberate your people.

Through our lives and by our prayers
your kingdom come.

We pray for the King and the Royal family at this time, that they may be restored to health to continue their work. Politicians are concerned with public services, administration of the law and the economy. The Royal family are the champions of the voluntary sector, which is so important in binding and uniting our communities.

Lord God, in Jesus you healed both the lowly and the powerful and encouraged your followers to build communities of caring. We pray for our sovereign King Charles and Catherine, Princess of Wales as they undergo treatment for cancer. We thank you for the concern they have shown for others who are similarly suffering and ask that they be brought to full health to support the work of building a caring society in our land.

Through our lives and by our prayers
your kingdom come.

We pray for our city, growing in size but leaving very many falling behind and in dire need.

Lord God, in Jesus you touched the scabby, listened to the ignored,
gave the depressed something to hope for, bandaged the broken with love and healed them.
We remember those in our community who are in desperate need,
or feel ignored, discarded or disposable.

We believe that your power to heal is still present
so we ask for your help and guidance to lead us
that we might not be discouraged by our weakness
but find strength to continue and grow your work in this place.

Through our lives and by our prayers
your kingdom come.

We pray for our fellowship. We have just had our annual meeting.
We need more financial resources to keep our church functioning.
We have so many commitments that we could not prepare a full report on time
as it seems that we may have too few people prepared to take on duties to get things done.
We pray for all those who have requested prayers from our on-line prayer group
and all of our people who need our prayers at time.
We pray for the faithful departed, giving thanks for their influence upon us;
remembering particularly our sister Jenny Donaldson. We pray for her grieving family.

Lord God, by the authority of scripture we learn that we are the body of Christ,
then Lord, make us like you.

Through our lives and by our prayers
your kingdom come.

Your kingdom come, in joy and generosity, in small and large, the ordinary and the special,
and to you be the glory, now and always.

Amen

[Adapted from A Wee Worship Book (1988) copyright © John L Bell, Iona Community.]

Prepared for use at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, Central Milton Keynes,
by Don Head.