A Prayer for the Resurrection of the Church

Resurrection isn’t, was never a one time thing Jesus did. It’s an ongoing way of life we’re invited into, where good triumphs over evil, life overcomes death, love proves itself radically stronger than hate.

On Easter Sunday, we prayed the words below, a “Prayer for the Resurrection of the Church,” adapted from the book Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans and Jeff Chu. As you read them over again today, in the context of your real life, in the context of the daily news, which of the short confessions and pleas for change strike closest to home for you? Where do you sense God is already at work in your life, making streams in dry places? Take a few minutes to talk with Jesus about these things.

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One: O God we confess that we have wandered from your ways

Many: Change our hearts that we might look more like Christ.

One: We have used power to conquer and control.

Many: May the church be resurrected to the way of humility.

One: We have put certainty over faith.

Many: May the church be resurrected to the way of curiosity.

One: We have been far too quick to judge.

Many: May the church be resurrected to the way of mercy.

One: We have centered ourselves instead of the margins.

Many: May the church be resurrected to the way of service.

One: We have too often neglected our own self-care.

Many: May the church be resurrected to the way of wholeness.

One: We have resorted to so many unhealthy comforts.

Many: May the church be resurrected to the way of the cross.

One: May the church be resurrected like Jesus.

Many: May the church be resurrected by love.

AMEN.

Adapted from Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans and Jeff Chu