Resurrection Sunday Prayer

Father, make us faithful as Joseph of Arimethea, make us loving as the two Marys, make us as bold as Peter, make us as beloved as John, make us as thoughtful as Thomas in this Resurrection season.

Thank you for the Resurrection, both Your Son's, and our own future resurrection that your Son's promises. Thank you for the Passion, the passiveness with which the Christ suffered, and by which He was proven righteous.

Your Kingdom come, this weekend, to the lives of so many people around the world. Your Kingdom come, this weekend, in a new way to your old followers. Your kingdom come, this weekend, to the entire creation, that all may shout your praise, that we may all worship you with in-breathing and out-breathing, with movement, with stillness, with speech, action, and thought.

So many people fight against Your Kingdom, both leaders and followers. Show them Your way, the better way, the best way, much better than power, than power plays, than gossip, bitterness, anger, deceit, pride, hatred. Your way is the way of Love, unconditional. Forgiving love, forgetting love, graceful love, but just love, and how that may be is hard for us to grasp, to say the least, but both your peace and love surpass our understanding. Nevertheless, teach it to us, show us to use it, make us constantly ask, "What should that look like in our life and the lives around us?" and not just spout out generic, abstract, useless jargon like, "Put your life in His," or "Let Him speak to you," or "Trust in Him." Teach us to flesh out those statements, to know what they look like, to know how to do them, not just how to say them.

As my friend was saying last night, show us the power of the Spirit. What is that power? What great things can you do for us, and how can we take that blessing and bless others? Don't let us forget that blessings come to us so that we may bless others. Abraham was blessed, so that the whole world would be blessed through him and his Seed. We need blessings in our lives, so many of Your Church have lost what they should never have lost. Bless them, hold them close, and show them the better way. Much better than the angels, than the tabernacle, than the priests of Levi. We need that power of Your Spirit, we must have it or we will die away. When we get it, when we see it, make sure we know what it is and how to use it for the benefit of others, brothers and sisters, and antichrists. For Your mercy falls on the just and the unjust, same as the rain, so let the blessings you give us be funneled to the just and unjust, that the just may have more blessings, ad infinitum, and that the unjust may find Your Kingdom.

Give us mercy and love for the things we hate. Help us so that our lives may be a reflection of You, so that everyone, both Your Church and others, can be blessed in what they see and that, in that blessing, they may move more fully into Your Kingdom.

Our Father, our dad, protector, provider, our friend, Who is not bound by this world, but above and beyond it, yet very near nevertheless, beside us in fact, Your very name is holy, special, and wonderful. We want Your Kingdom to have the same power here on earth as it does in Your heavens. Not only in the greater world, but in our lives, in our hearts, and in our homes, so that what You want to happen, that which is best, can happen every day, hour, minute and second. Give us what we need to get by, and if we are spoiled then teach us humility; if You have blessed us with abundance then show us that we need to bless others with it, lest it be taken away because we were poor stewards. Forgive us, as You have promised, and in so doing show us how to forgive; bless that we may bless, forgive that we may forgive, love that we may love. You know how weak we are, and You know our strengths better than we will ever know. Please, please, please keep us from evil, from temptation, but as we drag ourselves toward it despite You, give us strength to resist, supporting friends and family to help, humility to admit wrongdoing, and grace to accept punishment. We don't need to worry because it is Your Kingdom, not Obama's, or Kim Jeong-Il's, or Mao's, not our own, our mother's or father's, no one's but Yours. You have the power, the glory. As it was and is, so shall it be, forever and forever, world without end. Amen and amen.