Oh Lord, as we stand before you on this Labor Day weekend, the symbolic dividing line between the end of one secular season and the beginning of another, we pause to take stock of the season behind and the season ahead. Only you fully know our hopes, fears, dreams, and disappointments as we say in the words of the psalmist “Oh Lord, you search me and you know me.”
Thank you, Lord, for the values of labor, whether as a child, a student, a parent, a volunteer, whether in or out of the paid workforce, by our choice or not of our own making. Thank you for setting us at tasks that challenge and fulfill us. Help all those seeking work to find what they need. We ask your help in discerning the ways by which our labor can better your world, as we acknowledge:
“Oh Lord, you search me and you know me.”
As Paul worked with Timothy, Onesimus, and the other early Christians to build your Church, may we follow in their examples, in our own time, in our own labors. In our tradition, we give thanks for the Church around the world, today remembering the Episcopal Church of the Sudan. In our Diocese of Maryland, we give thanks for the work done in your Name in Advent, Baltimore; All Hallows’, South River; and All Saints’, Reisterstown. Here in our own Christ Church, giving thanks for all who labor in your Name, and asking your blessing and guidance on our new assistant rector, Gina, we acknowledge: “Oh Lord, you search me and you know me.”
We rejoice in this community of Christians, giving thanks together in our times of joy – our birthdays, baptismal anniversaries, and wedding anniversaries that are celebrated this week. We welcome everyone here today who is new or visiting. We lift up those who are ill or especially need our prayers.. We pray for those who have died.. In recognition that only You know all that’s in our hearts and on our minds, we acknowledge: “Oh Lord, you search me and you know me.”
Oh Lord, as the people listening to Jesus in today’s Gospel struggled with what it meant to be His disciple, so we also labor for understanding. Help us embrace the comfort of knowing that we are as clay in God the potter’s hands, able to be vessels that seem good to Him, ready to labor in His service. Thank you for your unending and unshakeable presence in our lives, as expressed in today’s psalm: “I come to the end – I am still with you.” Amen.
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