Ah, Dear Lord, we come to pray. You dwell in blinding light, you dwell in the void between suns and stars and worlds. Darkness and light are the same to you. The universe is too big, too impersonal that you made it for the idea that you love humanity. When the angels hid the secret that we are made in the likeness of God, they hid it in the place where we dare not venture to go, in the human heart. But you are audacious and bold. Nothing will hold you back. You will boldly go where angels dare not to tread, and you bend down to meet us here. You are our amazing and audacious God, the pioneering God who crosses oceans, and we fall in behind you.

Ah, Dear Lord, you made the Pleiades and Orion, and you lead them out. We see them at their rising, and at their rising we celebrate the beginning of new time, you led us out of the dark time of the year into the returning season of light that promises growth and resurrection. We hold onto that promise, and we count every minute of the lengthening days and value them.

And we know that this is a season for remembering those we release to pass into time, and we remember our own names. These are people who lived long lives among us. Their lives were modest and they accomplished much. May their memory remain with us. May their legacy continue to ripple out through our lives. We wait with longing for the resurrection promised to us at the end of time when all joy is made complete and all things are reconciled. We would meet again. Come, Lord Jesus, come. And we remember the names which each of us can add, the names that are known to us, and to you.

Let us live through the winter of the world. We sneeze, we sniffle, we snuffle, we snot, we gunk, we ache, we slip and slide. We know the cold in our hands and toes. We trust our worship to be warm. Keep us in good health. We see the frost around. We wrap up warm and we retreat behind walls into homes. We know the fear that the world may change. Do not let us retreat into comfort when there is change to made and the world may burn. We ask you, make this world last as long as possible. In our hope of Spring and of the resurrection make us a people seeking a transformation in our lives, our community and our world. Because we live with the promise that we can hand this world on to another generation, our children, and our children’s children, that our legacy will not pass out of our hands in this land.

So teach us to pray with the intention to act in the saving the world, and we say together the prayer you taught your disciples

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.