Prayer for a New Day -- Jan. 15, 2017

O God of this new day….

We woke up this morning knowing that it was a new day.  After a cup of coffee and quick perusal of facebook, we found out that it was January 15th, 2017…  we know that this day has never occurred before and will never occur again.  The calendar tells us so, the changes in our children’s faces,  remind us that they are one day older, they can do things  differently that they could before, even a day ago. 

The news, no matter how many hours it is on auto play in the background can change so dramatically from yesterday to today… more people have died in the middle east, new information about Russia, about the FBI, about the election, about Trump, about healthcare, about marching, about fear.

The calendar tells us it is a new day, the Bible tells us it is a new day, but O god, O God, why does it so often feel as though we’ve been stuck in this place for so long? for too long?

Why does it feel as though we’ve been trudging up hill for so long.  When we wake up it feels too often that we are faced with the same struggles, the same routines, the same worries that we held on to so tightly when we went to sleep last night.  Some of them might have new names, new ingredients, new times and places, but the depth of worry, the overwhelming weight of the mundane is so heavy.  And yet the weight of the enormity of the violence and injustice and terror in our world blinds us again each new morning, so much so that we often feel the need to look away.  

You say O god, that this is the day, this new day is your day and yet it feels in some uncanny way that we’ve been here before as if we live in some perpetual Dunkin Donuts commercial rising each morning to put on the same slippers we wore yesterday to put the same coffee filter in the same machine.  

So, today, all powerful, all wonderful, all knowing, merciful and mighty God, shake us out of this sleepy stupor of infatuation with yesterday and grab ahold of us this morning and show us the beauty of new beginnings.  

In your word today, you teach us and show us that Simon had just ended a long day of fishing with nothing in his net and you, O Lord, told him to put his net down again in deep water.  I can just hear my voice in Simon’s saying, “I’ve already done that lord, I’ve already tried that Lord.. it didn’t work.”  But Jesus says, “Try again.  Put your net down in deep water.”

And so, Jesus, the living one, I ask this day that you powerfully come into this place and open our eyes to see what you have for us on this new day, so that we can see afresh the bounty and the blessing and the goodness of your world and your people.  

You have done so many great things.  Even in our own community, you have been in the healing work of (….) You have walked with (….), staying ever present in their lives, you have stayed close to ….. You  have shown us new mercies every single day.  Give us eyes to see that as you tell us again to put out in the deep water that your promises are waiting on the other side.  

And though this is a new calendar day, there is a timelessness to the call of our lives.  Lord you have given us saints to glean from and this weekend and always we are powerfully reminded of the work and words of Dr. Mr. Luther king Jr…. for in his dark days when he prayed powerfully to God — “I am at the end of my rope.. I have nothing left,”  your presence was made known to him and he rose from his time or prayer knowing that you would be by his side forever.  

With fervency and conviction we hear some of his most powerful words:

“in the midst of the pressures of another day, as we face its vast concerns. Above all else save us from succumbing to the tragic temptation of becoming cynical.”

Because your promises will endure, your new day is here and your new day is coming.  Hear our prayers, walk with us, give us new eyes to see and a new heart to follow you.  Amen, Amen. Amen.