A Prayer for Ascension Day

Dear Friends,

Sarah Hall wrote this prayer for Sunday’s digital service which focuses on the Ascension which falls today.  We hope you find it useful

God, greater than all our ideas of you, we praise you.
We know of kings and presidents, we know bosses and bossy people,
but you are greater than any of them.
The universe is your realm,
the human heart is your throne, and we praise you.

Jesus, crucified, risen and ascended, we praise you.
We walked alongside you. We saw you die. We found your empty tomb.
Now we know God has welcomed you home, and we praise you.

Spirit of God, go-between God, we praise you.
You show us God’s wisdom. You show us God’s will.
You give us hope of God’s kingdom here on earth, and we praise you.
God, greater than we can imagine,
Holy dance of new life, of transformation,
Lifting humanity into heaven, we praise you.
 
We praise you, yet your ascension seems
so far removed from anything we know,
that it’s easy to put it, to put you, to one side.
The world we know is one of struggle and hardship,
of error and failure, of sickness and death.
What has your heaven to do with that?
What have you to do with the hopelessness we find in human life?
 
We are tempted to put you into a box marked ‘heaven’,
and to take you out on Sundays for an hour.
We are tempted to forget the way you always work:
bringing light out of darkness; joy out of sorrow; life out of death. Amen

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship