Prayer for September 21, 2022

You call us to a higher standard, O God. We are called to lift up the stranger in our midst and treat foreigners as family. We are called to proclaim release to the captives and hope for the poor. Help us to stand up to people who want to claim to be people of faith who are unwilling to follow those simple principles. May we make them understand that if their values don’t include loving our neighbor as ourselves, that they are the Pharisees of our age. Help us to live as you would have us live. May we be people who value love for one another over some misguided idea of who should belong. Let us be the welcoming presence to which we are called. Amen