A Prayer Reflection

Each morning, the New England Annual Conference sends out a prayer. On Monday March 20, 2023 – the first day of Spring, Bishop Johnson’s prayer (see below) was shared.

It appears to be based on Ezekiel 37 and the valley of the dry bones. As I read it, I also envisioned the words as a sign of new life for all congregations.

That’s not to mean that suddenly money and attendance woes will be gone. Rather as we witness new life in nature, as faith communities we might pray this prayer for our congregation and its ministry in, and with, the world around us.

As we strive to survive, can we be open to new realities, even if they are not the ones we yearn for or remember?

As we worry about what is supposed to be right or wrong, can we put down our weapons of separation, exclusion, and hate and prepare to love, and be loved by, those who don’t agree with us?

As we consider the words of the prayer, let us by begin by asking the Holy Spirit to breathe into each of us. To breathe hope, love, grace, mercy, and gratitude that we might exhale and live those very things in our moment by moment lives.

BISHOP JOHNSON’S PRAYER:

Lord, our bones are dry and windswept.

We thirst for new life, a sip of living water.

We await a fresh moving of your Holy Spirit, a stirring of new vitality,

A refreshed vision that opens our souls for new realities.

Our bones are scattered, speak and draw us together.

The old has passed away, cover us with new flesh, new life and new possibilities.

Let us move from the battles of the past to dwell in Eden.

Free us from our warring so we might enter your new Jerusalem, the city of peace.

Only you, O Lord can do this, may these bones live again. Amen.