All Saints’ • The Weekly
Building of God’s Kingdom By Robin Denney
“Your vocation is where your greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need,” (Theologian Frederick Buechner). God calls us each individually to the work of building God’s Kingdom on earth. Day by day we love each other and God with our hearts, minds, and strength. From time to time we find ourselves out of step or in times of change, wondering what God is calling us to. I’ve found this quote from Buechner helpful in focusing my prayer about God’s call in my life. Our hearts are filled with passion fueled by our talents and interests, and by the injustices and pain in the world that make us angry. In discerning God’s call to us, in life changing decisions, and daily decisions, spending time in prayer is critical. In prayer we hold these things, the passions and pain of our hearts and the world before God, and we listen, again and again. And though we might not hear specific direction, we find God’s answer in different ways: in scripture, in the Spirit which drives us onward, and in the peace which passes understanding that dwells in our hearts.
The Praying Church By Greg Troxell
We are blessed in the Episcopal church with the prayers of the people found in the Book of Common Prayer. The forms help us to pray for ourselves, our families and the world. Yet what is a prayer if there is no faith? Effective prayer, brings us into the presence of God. Sometimes our prayers are not answered the way we would like, sometimes the answer is delayed, but whether answered or not, our prayers offered in faith, increase our relationship with the Lord Almighty and place us in alignment with his purposes. In today’s reading from Colossians we are reminded that Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection settled any questions of his divine authority in the spiritual realms. When we pray, we must exercise our faith, rooted in scriptural truths, divine promises and our personal knowledge of the Jesus character and authority. When we pray in the power of the spirit it is not the verbalization of a wish, but soulful and joyous surrender to the will of God. Let us pray.
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